The Founders Four
by parihpfan
Summary: On a dark and stormy night, the staff and students of Hogwarts were taken by surprise when four mysterious figures appeared outside on the grounds. Who are they and why do they look like the Founders? What does this mean for the war? AU Time travelling
1. Chapter 1: Deep Magic

**Hello All,**

This is my first attempt to writing a Harry Potter story. For this I have adapted JadedofMara's story The Founder Four. I am mixing her work and rewriting most of her story as well. I hope you like the story. Please review and give me your views as that will help me a lot.

One more thing, I have been an active reader of Harry Potter stories, and have read multiple stories in different Genre, for about 4-5 years now. I have also read a lot of stories about the Founders. So if you recognise anything as similar to another story, please accept my apologies and do let me know where that similarity came from so I can give them credit or change that part.

DISCLAIMER: Now before I start my story, I wish to tell everyone that this is a fictional story based on Harry Potter series. I do not own any of the character names that you might recognise. I thank J.K. Rowling for her work.

* * *

**Chapter One: Deep Magic**

It was a dark and stormy night. Storm clouds blanketed the moonless sky as rain poured down from the heavens, lashing against the windows. The sound of thunder filled the air, making it nearly impossible to hear the person next to you. It seemed almost as if the world was tearing itself apart and crying from the effort of it.

It was a truly a frightening night to begin a new year at school. Nevertheless it was the night of the first of September nineteen ninety six, and thus a new year was about to begin at the esteemed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The arrival of first years through the flooded lake had been perilous to say the least but fortunately everyone reached the castle safely; if only cold and drenched. A quick drying and warming charm from the Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall solved that problem.

In the gloomy mood, every student in the Great Hall was immersed in conversation while anxiously waiting for the new First Years to be sorted so they can have some food. Meanwhile at the Head table most of the teachers were feeling some unexplained uneasiness. However no one was feeling the disturbance in the atmosphere more than the revered Headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore - Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards – was no novice to assessing the situation by the atmosphere around a place. However today he could not guess what was wrong even though he had the nagging feeling that something very important was about to happen.

The sorting ceremony and dinner went without a hitch. Once the feast was over and the plates clear, Dumbledore got to his feet to begin his start-of-term speech. Just as he stood up, a sudden explosion sounded in the distance that shook the school to its hidden foundations. Teacher and student alike paused and looked in the direction of the sound, wondering what was happening. The distant crash of thunder and the constant pounding of rain, which were so loud a moment ago, now seemed muted and insignificant.

The Headmaster quickly asked for the students to settle down and ordered the prefects and head students to see that no one wandered out of the Hall. After that he swept outside the Great Hall, with most of the teachers on his heels.

Hogwarts shuddered once again, and then sighed.

Meanwhile, as the feast was going on inside the castle, in the central courtyard, several figures had appeared with a thunderous _crack!_ They were now standing warily together, each with their back to the others.

The most conspicuously noticeable person was a male, who stood well over six feet tall. His fire-red hair was long and half tied back. A delicate dusting of equally ginger hair graced his battle-hardened features, forming a moustache and goatee. The wizard wore a griffin-skin cloak of deep crimson over scarlet robes and golden coloured battle armour. A heavy sword belt hung from his hip, its scabbard empty. A long silver sword, encrusted with magnificent rubies was held firmly in the wizard's left hand, on which a signet ring—of twin golden lions carrying rubies in their mouths—rested proudly. A long Redwood wand was seen clutched on his right hand.

To the right of the man stood a beautiful woman, her honey-coloured hair swept up away from her neck to avoid the quiver of arrows secured there. Her bow was already in hand, an arrow notched and ready to be fired. The witch was dressed in bronze armoured robes and a deep blue Elven-weave cloak. On the fourth finger of the witch's left hand, two bronze rings intertwined with each other. The first, the one closest to the fingertip, showed a falcon, its eye a single sapphire. The falcon's wings were spread lovingly around the figure of the second ring, the head of a lion with a ruby held tight in its mouth. Around her delicate waist was a belt of linked bronze. A wand holster could be seen strapped to her right arm, giving her easy access to her filigreed mahogany wand.

Standing directly behind the witch was another woman, this with long auburn hair that fell to her waist. Though her face was kindly, her chestnut eyes glittered dangerously. This witch wore yellow battle robes with a black dragon hide cloak, and a black belt from which many potions and two empty sheaths hung. The contents of the sheaths—an ornately carved Ebony wand and a gold and onyx filigree dagger—were held lightly in her hands. On the witch's wedding finger was a set of two interweaving gold rings. The first, closest to the palm, was of a single coiled snake, with its tail wrapped firmly around an emerald. The second was the image of a badger which was encircled by the snake of the other ring. The badger held a black pearl in its paws.

To the left of the witch, there was yet another wizard, this one slightly shorter than the first. This wizard's hair was long as well, though it was black and not long enough to tie back, leaving it to fall into his hard, gleaming green eyes. His robes were a deep forest green, and covered by a goblin-wrought silver breastplate and a matching sword belt. The sword—silver with a single large emerald set deep in the hilt—rested still in its scabbard. Over this, the wizard wore a naturally toned Basilisk-scale cloak, which shimmered between its true green and deep silver in the half moonlight of the courtyard. His signet ring—two silver snakes entwined with each other around a large, pure emerald—was easily seen on his left hand. The Basilisk-scale wand holster on the wizard's right arm was empty, its wand of pale Ash, carved all over with snakes, firmly clasped in his hand. Draped over the wizard's shoulders and all down his left arm, its body upright in the wizard's hand and fangs bared, was a long, thick snake, it's scales purest white from age, though the snake itself was still just as deadly as ever. It was poised and ready to strike.

Hearing footsteps coming down the hallway in front of the red robed wizard, the four strangers stood side by side—the two wizards in the centre, and the witches on the outside ready for battle. A tall, purple-robed wizard with long white hair and beard with blue eyes that shone from behind half-moon spectacles rounded the corner coming to a stop at the sight of the newcomers.

The four strangers exchanged looks of shock and incredulity at the appearance of this man. He was, after all, supposedly dead.

It was a while before the man found his voice.

"The Founders?" he asked disbelievingly. "No! This can't be possible!"

"I assure you," the green-swathed wizard said in a silky voice, drawing out all his '_S_'s far longer than necessary, as if it was his habit. "Whatever it is that 'can't be possible' is perfectly so, for this is Magic, my friend, and anything is possible to those with sufficient faith."


	2. Chapter 2: Reactions

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to JK Rowling

_+Italics+ _means Telepathic Conversation

* * *

**Chapter Two: Reactions**

Albus Dumbledore looked absolutely flabbergasted. This is a sight that not many can claim to have seen. Albus always did pride himself to have been ready for every possible thing that might happen (no matter how farfetched it may seem to others), but this was something he had never anticipated even in his dreams and thus, he was at loss for words.

Behind him, Minerva McGonagall was gobsmacked to say the least, before her were the four people long thought to be dead. She was not sure if she believed that they came back to life or that they had travelled through time, as travelling through such a long period of time was simply not possible.

Beside Minerva was Professor Severus Snape – the resident Potions Master of Hogwarts. If anyone was looking at him, they would have captured the moment on a magical camera and still that picture would not have moved, as Severus Snape stood frozen on his spot with an expression of pure disbelief on his face. His mouth was slightly open, his eyeballs were almost coming out of his sockets and if anyone tried Legilimency on him then they would not only have found his thoughts almost invisible but literally swimming in the pool of his mind. He could not believe what he was seeing in front of him, but yet there was no doubt of their identitiy. They were (are, he supposed) undoubtedly the Four Founders of Hogwarts.

Surrounding him and Minerva McGonagall were the tiny Charms Master Filius Flitwick and The groundskeeper of Hogwarts and Half Giant, Rubeus Hagrid. Each of them sporting a look of varying degrees of shock and incredulity.

When one of the four strangers replied to the Headmaster's question of shock, the professors were still in shock but were able to collect themselves enough to straighten their expressions. However, they were still at loss of what to do next, that is everyone except Albus Dumbledore.

* * *

On other side, while the four newcomers were sporting neutral faces, they were actually having a telepathic conversation between them.

"_What just happened, anyone have any ideas?"_ said the green eyed black haired wizard.

"_Well we are still at Hogwarts and there are a lot of dead people who are standing in front of us and the people who _should_ be standing in front of us are not here" _said the Fiery-red haired man.

"_GODRIC"_ said three voices in his head.

"_Sorry"_ said, the ginger wizard, Godric, in a small voice

Just then Albus Dumbledore disbelievingly said "The Founders? No! This can't be possible!"

"_Well they think we are founders, I say let them think we are the Founders at least until we can have a private chat with Dumbledore and try to figure out what has happened."_ Rowena Ravenclaw, the woman with honey coloured hair, spoke up, looking at the assembled teachers warily as she slowly lowered her bow. _"Agreed"_ said the rest of them

"I assure you," Salazar Slytherin, the wizard in green raiment, addressed the headmaster, purposely drawing out his 'S's far longer than necessary to exude an intimidating aura. "Whatever it is that 'can't be possible' is perfectly so, for this is Magic, my friend, and anything is possible to those with sufficient faith."

"_Well done, Sal, I think you have just shocked them out of their stupors"_ Godric said mentally, his tone sarcastic.

"_That was my intention, Ric"_ Salazar, replied mentally.

Rowena interrupted the bantering wizards. "_Shush you two, pay attention to the situation, I say we ask them to take this meeting somewhere private and talk to Dumbledore and try to find out where we are from him"_

"_Are you kidding? He will give us half answers and riddles!"_ Said Godric

"_that is why I think Sal should do the talking"_

"_Ok, leave it to me"_ said Salazar

"_Good luck love"_ the auburn haired witch, who was silent until now, spoke up for the first time.

_"Thanks sweetheart" _Salazar replied mentally.

* * *

"My sincere apologies for my abrupt behaviour; however this is a very unusual occurrence. One which, I have to admit, that I never anticipated being possible, but as it is, it seems that I was gravely mistaken. My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the current Headmaster of Hogwarts. Behind me are some of the members of my faculty and I am sure you must have realised that you are on the safe grounds of Hogwarts" Albus spoke up before Salazar could say anything. They all could see that the headmaster's eyes were twinkling very brightly with excitement. It was as if the twinkling stars in the night sky would feel shy in comparison

"Obviously we realise that we are on the grounds of our very own Hogwarts, however we do not recognise you. But Hogwarts seems different, and we are assuming that it has something to do with who you are, and what you are doing at Hogwarts. Perhaps it would be prudent if we take this conversation inside, where we can all be warm and comfortable, before discussing the situation in more depth." said Salazar, with a neutral but alert face.

"Of course, Lord Slytherin, that indeed would be prudent. If you would please join us inside the castle...?" Dumbledore graciously replied.

"After you, Headmaster" Salazar watched the old man very intently as he and his companions slowly sheathed their weapons.

With that, everyone began walking towards the Headmaster's office on seventh floor of the castle, each person lost in their own thoughts.

Albus was thinking of how the four figures of legend had reached here, and the things he could learn about them and about the history of Hogwarts in general. He was also thinking about how he could gain their trust and if there was any way that the founders could have come here or if he had read about this adventure trip of the founders in any of his books. However as they approached the gargoyle guarding his office, he could not come up with anything concrete.

Professors McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick were still partially in shock. However there were also some other thoughts going on inside their brains. For example, how this could be possible, the Founders, what they can learn about the history, the Founders, how it would benefit them in the on-going war, the Founders, what would it mean for the school, the Founders, what would it mean for their individual houses and the Founders.

Hagrid was still in shock but he knew that if Dumbledore thought they were the founders than they have to be. However, he was sure that they can't be better than Dumbledore. He also decided that he will not leave the headmaster alone with them, in case they try to hurt him (especially a certain black-haired founder).

* * *

The Founders were once again conversing telepathically.

"_Sal, I think that we should only talk to Dumbledore for now. Even then we must not reveal who we are unless we are absolutely certain that it is Dumbledore we are talking to and we know exactly what we are facing. I mean we don't know where we are and who these people are, but I know one thing for certain that no one will be able to disguise themselves as Dumbledore perfectly."_ Said Helga

"_I agree with you there"_ Rowena replied.

"_Me too, I think we should try to find out where we are and what year it is first"_ said Godric

"_What do you mean?"_ Helga asked

"_well it is clear that if this is Dumbledore, than we are in past, but when?" _replied Godric

"_well said, Godric," _Rowena said approvingly._ "I didn't think about it, we don't know what time it is and thus don't know what impact our appearance here may cause... what do you think Sal?" _She asked Salazar.

"_I agree with Helga completely," _Salazar replied._ "But I think that Godric is partially right, we really need more information before I can say anything for sure but if these people are really who they say they are than there are two possibilities. Either we are in past, or we have somehow managed to move ourselves in an alternate universe"_

"_Alternate Universe? Do you really think that is a possibility"_ Rowena asked in concern.

At the same time, Godric and Helga asked together. _"what is an alternate universe"_

"_An alternate universe is also sometimes known as parallel world where alternate realities exist._" Rowena lectured._ "It is theorised that these worlds were once one but at certain point in time where dualities came into existence, they disengage themselves and create a whole new series of sequences from that point onwards. But that is not the point, do you really think that it is possible, Sal?"_

"_umm love... can you please explain that in simple terms? I am a little lost here"_ said Godric, a confused expression on his face.

"_Me too"_ said Helga

"_What Rowena means is that some people have speculated that when something very crucial happens in world time line can separate in two or more parts. For example, when Dumbledore defeated Grindelward, he nearly lost the duel. That was a very decisive moment in history. It is speculated that at such point two realities will exist. One where we lived and Dumbledore won. However at that point in time, the reality will have split and another timeline will emerge where Grindlewald won. So the world will be continuing from there and deal with the consequences of that incident. Does that make sense?"_ Salazar explained patiently.

"_ya that's a lot clearer, thanks." _Godric replied, his face clearing up._ "But is this true? It sounds dodgy to me."_

"_even I am having a hard time believing this. Do you think that is what has happened?"_ Helga added.

" _I cannot be certain of anything unless we speak to Dumbledore, but it is a possibility. I don't know if this is only a theory or truth, but there is one more thing, we don't know what the Arithmatic consequences would be of the complexity that happened when I duelled Voldemort." _Salazar responded

"_I agree, I will need a few minutes to think of the Arithmatical consequences." _Rowena said._ "We are almost reaching the office. Sal, I still think we should only talk to Dumbledore first, now might be the best chance we have to mention that"_

"_I agree Row, I will ask for this meeting to be private and that should also buy us some time for you to calculate the Arithmatical consequences of my duel. For now let's just stick to facts and not think of Alternate realities. Agreed?" _

"_Agreed."_ came three voices

"_The stage is yours, Sal, good luck"_ said Godric.

* * *

"Headmaster, I believe that this conversation should take place with extreme privacy, don't you think?" Salazar's voice broke the contemplative silence the headmaster and teachers were in just as they reached the gargoyle.

Jerked out of his thoughts, Albus responded absently "But of course Lord Slytherin." He also had a look of polite confusion on his face as if to suggest that he took the privacy as granted.

"Then you would agree that the less people involved in this conversation, the better?"

A light seemed to go off in the headmaster's eyes. "Agreed, Lord Slytherin," He turned to the teachers. "Minerva, Filius, Severus, Hagrid, thank you for accompanying us till here. However I think that the students and other members of staff are waiting for some news. Would you all be kind enough to tell them that there is nothing to worry about and ensure that the students are safely back in their dorms"

Seeing that there is no way that they can join in, all four of the Staff members left to go to the Great Hall and follow the Headmaster's instructions. Each person was thinking about the mystery and slowly coming out of their shock. Hagrid was a little hesitant and about to protest but one meaningful look from the Headmaster ensured that he followed the instructions.


	3. Chapter 3: Explanations I

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to JK Rowling

_+Italics+ _means Telepathic Conversation

* * *

**Chapter three: Explanations  
**

After their companions had all left, the founders and the Headmaster turned to the Gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office. Before Dumbledore could say the password, Salazar waved his hand in front of the statue, causing the gargoyle to bow and jump aside, giving access to the visitors. Dumbledore's eyes lit up in delighted curiosity at this display.

Once inside the office, the four founders drew up their own squashy comfortable armchairs. Each armchair represented their individual house colours. On the far left, sat Godric, on his deep red coloured armchair, with golden polka dots. Next to him was Rowena whose armchair had Bronze and Blue stripes. Next to her was Salazar on a black armchair with little silver spots. On the far right, next to Salazar was Helga also on a black armchair with yellow coloured leaves.

"Sherbet lemon?" asked the headmaster, offering the sweet to the founders. However seeing the looks all four were giving him (a mix of amusement with curiosity) the headmaster explained further "they are a type of sweet that I am rather fond of"

"No, thank you, Headmaster" said Godric, the other three declining as well.

"Well, I hope you will forgive me for my impoliteness. However, I do not know what to say other than the difference in the castle that I am sure you must have noticed. Whilst it is the same castle there are noticeable differences as well." Albus internally cringed. He did not ramble. He never rambled! Though, the situation was quite extraordinary, even for him.

"Yes we noticed," Salazar replied dryly. "And this very thing indicated to us that something unexpected and rather ... _interesting_ has happened. The result of which, obviously, is that the four of us are here." He added quite unnecessarily. Pinching his nose, he continued. "Perhaps if you give us some details of the place and … time we are currently in?"

"Of course, Lord Slytherin. You are currently in the year nineteen ninety six and today's date is the first of September."

"The first of September, you said?" Salazar brought his fingers together in a thoughtful gesture, his eyebrows raised. "In the year nineteen ninety six?"

"That is correct, sir," Albus' voice was gentle as he spoke. He could only imagine what the four people in front of him must be feeling. To have been uprooted from what was your present and hurtled an entire millennium (and a few years) into the future could be quite unsettling. Meanwhile, the founders were conversing with each other telepathically.

"_Well what do you think? He seems like Dumbledore, but how can it be the first of September nineten ninety six? I mean wasn't it the seventh of June nineteen ninety seven where we left?" _Rowena asked thoughtfully with a mental frown.

"_Yes it was" _Godric chirped.

"_Hmm that is interesting. But I think this just provides more proof to support the theory of Alternate universe." _ Said Salazar

"_I agree it does seem like what you described earlier, dear." _Helga replied.

"_I agree as well, but are we sure?" _said Godric

"_Well I agree but it seems that we have not only travelled through the dimensions but also time." _Rowena thoughtfully supplied._ "Now that is interesting. Is that supposed to happen, Sal?"_

"_Well it is an interesting situation indeed, but I will have to do more research into that, until then I am going to try and get more information on this universe, and after that reveal our identities. Agreed?"_ said Salazar

"_Totally"_

"_Yes dear"_

"_Go for it mate"_

* * *

Salazar focussed on the headmaster who was observing them thoughtfully. "Well, this is an unusual situation to say the least. I suppose we shall have to do a lot of research on what has happened to reverse this phenomenon. However, until that time, would it be possible for us to stay here?"

Dumbledore took a scant moment to reply. "But of course my lord, this is your castle after all" he said readily, giving them a searching look, multiple thoughts going through his mind. He was curious to say the least, but he dared not try to use Legilimency on these people. But he had some questions that intrigued him. For example, only Salazar seemed to reply but he always referred to all four of them. It can be one of three things, either he is taking their replies for granted (which given his reputation is quite possible) or they are communicating in some way without making others aware of it (that is unheard of but then again people coming this far in future is also unheard of. Also who knows the extent of power that these legendary individual possess) Or else Salazar thinks he is royalty. The thing that had Albus most concerned, however, was that these individuals are the founders then how are they talking in modern English? If he was not wrong, then that language did not exist in their time.

"We thank you." The green eyed founder replied with aplomb. "Now, if you could, please enlighten us about the world around us. After all, a lot of time has passed. It would be nice to know of the current climate, for one. Are we at war or is this a time of peace? Rowena here for one is probably dying to know of the many advancements of wizard-kind."

Dumbledore inclined his head in silent agreement. 'Yes, but before I begin, I am curious to know if you have any theories as to how this might have happened. I, for one, am at a loss.' He gave a look to the four individuals in front of him that made them think that they were being x-rayed.

"We do have our theories," Salazar replied vaguely. "One more likely than the other, and if what we suspect is true, then things are a lot more complicated than how they appear initially. However, before we go into any details we would like you to tell us some things about this world."

Alarm bells went off in Dumbledore's mind. Salazar just said that "we" had theories but ever since they arrived they have not spoken to each other. So how did he know if the others had any theory? The other three are not looking surprised either! And how are they speaking in modern English.

Taking a moment to compose himself Headmaster asked his question in Gaelic_ "certainly My Lord, however, I hope that you would forgive me for asking but how is it that you are speaking modern English"_

Taken aback by the sudden change in language, Rowena replied in the same language "_Headmaster, I created this useful spell to enable us to speak the language that is understood by the general public of the place. The spell only had to be cast once and it stays with us for a few years. I hope this answers your question." _This was not entirely true, she had certainly created such a spell but had not casted it on themselves. So technically she did not lie as well.

"Certainly, thank you for the explanation." Dumbledore responded in English "my apologies but I hope have to be certain about facts before I reveal anything. One can never be too careful in times like this; for we are currently at war in this period of time."

Dumbledore paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and also to look for some sign of recognition or shock. He saw that all four eyes widened for a little while before returning back to the neutral expression. It was a small reaction but enough for Dumbledore to confirm that these people were not Death Eaters. However, whilst this answered a few questions, it also raised some more questions. How much detail should he go into? It would all depend on how long these legendary figures will have to stay in this time line. If they are going to be here for a long time, then he should go into detail and possibly get some help as well. However if they are not going to be here for a while then it would be prudent to not involve them in too much detail. 'They said that they have a theory.' He thought to himself. 'Maybe I can ask them if they have an estimation of a time scale.'

"I, of course, realise that you have some issues that are of utmost importance to you, however, you suggested that you have some theories. I hope you will not mind me questioning you about this. But I would rather not bother you with details of the current war and drag you into something which you are not a part of. However, if your stay in this time scale is going to be for a long period I am afraid I will have to go into details."

"I understand your situation Headmaster" Salazar replied compassionately. "I think that Rowena will be able to throw some light on this situation"

"Well, Headmaster, as Salazar said earlier that we have a couple of theories. However we cannot be sure of anything unless we gather some more information about this timeline. We will also have to do some research on the topic before being certain." Rowena explained

"However, we also realise your position. If this is a time of war, as you said, then we realise that it might not be easy for you to trust what we say easily. I thank you for being so considerate of our situation and trying to help despite of everything" Helga interrupted with her calming and conceding voice.

"Headmaster, as Helga explained we understand your position, but you must understand that we cannot define the timescale with certainty. However, from whatever information we have been able to gather, it seems that the situation is more complex than our assumption and we will be in this timeline for length of time between a year to say about ten years or more. However, as I explained earlier, we will need to do some research on the topic before being certain." Rowena explained.

"Thank you for understanding my position, Lady Hufflepuff and Lady Ravenclaw. Alas, I will have to go into the details of the current war with you. However before doing that, I would like to offer my assistance in your research and my help in any manner that I can." Dumbledore replied

Salazar thanked the Headmaster on behalf of everyone.

"First I will briefly go over the fate of Hogwarts after your time. It gives me immense happiness to say that Hogwarts has more or less remained the same and has followed your legacy. It has become one of the most prestigious magical schools on the isles. We still sort the students in four houses and currently Hogwarts is home to over 150 students in total. These students come from all over Britannia. Since seventeen hundred and seven, the various kingdoms that you remember from your time have united to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Dumbledore continued with pride and happiness in his eyes and voice.

"However, on the darker side, recently, a dark lord has risen and has been terrorising the Isles for last 30 years. He has yet to declare a war but has been picking out families and people and killing them. Thus he has created an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty. Hogwarts has so far been safe from his attacks but he has been known to attack Hogsmeade, the Wizarding village nearby. One more interesting thing is that this dark lord usually sends his followers, who are known as Death Eaters, to carry out these attacks. He has only been seen once or twice. He has crafted himself a new name – Lord Voldemort; but his real name is Tom Riddle." Dumbledore paused in his explanation to give the others some time to digest this information.

As Dumbledore's explanation ended, the Founders started their own telepathic conversation.

"_So it seems that Voldemort is still very much active here but he is been at it for 30 years! How can that be? I mean why didn't the Harry in this world stop him, I mean in our world baby Harry stopped him right then why not here?" _Godric started

"_Well one thing is for certain that we have managed to stumble in alternate universe, but where does this universe split? I mean it is clear that Grindelward did die as the current dark lord is Voldemort, but then was there a prophecy like the one we had in our world? If so why did it not play out like our world?"_ Rowena summarised

"_Well this is just great, let's just add this to the list of twists in our lives."_ Godric exclaimed with sarcasm

Ignoring Godric's remark, Salazar continued to analyse the situation and plan the best strategy to get more information. _"It seems that the only person that can answer that question is Dumbledore." He silently added. "He has also offered to help with our research and we will need his help to access some rare books that explain the theory of and way out of alternate reality. But if we want to research that we will have to reveal our real identities. This will also ensure that Dumbledore answers the question that Row asked."_

"Yes that does seem like the only option we currently have dear" Helga conceded

"_Well if it ensures that Dumbledore will give us more information in this confusing and weird situation that we are currently in then I am all for it, mate"_ Godric agreed

"_This seems to be the only option we have to get some answers and I agree with you Sal that we will need access to some rare books to try and find a way back home; and Dumbledore is in the best position to get that for us. I say we go for it but gradually, let us first reveal our real names and see how he reacts, we can then go from there_" Rowena gave her opinion

"Thank you for the information Headmaster," Salazar addressed Dumbledore. "You have been very accepting of our situation and we appreciate that. We come from a time when trust has to be gained and you have gained that. Thus we would like to share something with you as well. I realise that you think we are the Founders of this place. To an extent it is the truth but not the entire truth." Salazar paused after this revelation to observe Dumbledore's expression

Dumbledore's eyes widened fractionally and you could see the signs of distrust starting to build in.

This confirmed to the Founders that the Headmaster had not recognized them and most probably they did not exist in this world. Thus Salazar continued with his revelations whilst everyone kept a close eye on Dumbledore's subtle reactions.

"What I mean to say is that we are the Founders but not exactly the people that you are assuming. We are the reincarnations of the Founders. We have different names and identities in this birth. But that is just the starting of the twists in our situation. The real complication is that we know you and all those teachers that were with us, and we have fought with you all in a war against Voldemort. But you don't seem to recognise us!"

Salazar tried his best not to alarm the Headmaster but he could not stop the shock that the Headmaster was feeling. Dumbledore took a few moments to compose himself and reinforce before asking for an explanation.

"Perhaps the best place to start is by telling you our real names. My name in this birth is Harry Potter" revealed Salazar.

He paused to observe the reaction to his name. Others were also watching Dumbledore closely and noticed that at the mention of his name, Dumbledore's eyes widened. However this was not unusual but what they saw next was something unexpected for out visitors. Dumbledore's face went grave and his eyes showed deep pain. However, Dumbledore nodded for Harry to go on.

"The wizard on far left is Ron Weasley, the witch to my left is his wife Hermione Granger; and the beautiful lady on my right is Ginny Weasley."

By now Dumbledore's eyes were not only wide but the twinkle was also replaced with a look of pure horror.


	4. Chapter 4: Explanations II

**Hello Everyone,**

First of all, I would like to apologise for this delay in updating the next chapter. There are a couple of reasons for that.

First and foremost, I have now got a Beta for this story - Teufel1987. So we have been working together to fill the holes in the plot and reviewed the first three chapters. So the previous chapters have all been updated. There are major changes in Chapter three, so please do check it out and give your reviews.

Secondly, this has been a very difficult chapter for me to write as there are some major explanations here. So I hope you will like it and I would really appreciate if you could give me your views on the chapter.

Now that all that has been sorted out the chapters should come in quicker.

Once again I would like to thank Teufel1987 for his patience and hard work. This chapter is dedicated to him.

"_Italics_" - telepathic conversations or another language.

"normal" - normal dialogue between characters

* * *

**Chapter Four Explanations II**

"Perhaps the best place to start is by telling you our real names. My name in this birth is Harry Potter" revealed Salazar.

This came as a big shock to me, the Potters were a part of the faculty and one of the families that were affected the most in the war. Their son Harry was killed by Voldemort, along with the baby's caretaker for the night and Godmother Marlene McKinnon, all due to a prophecy. But that was not all. Ever since that incident, the Potters did not have a baby again and had thrown themselves to educate the children and protect them in the school. They were joined by Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Their pain was always shown on their faces and gone were the spark of the pranksters that the three males were. However, I needed more information. If this is Harry Potter, then who are the other three. Harry's generation was the most affected by the massacre that Voldemort had engineered after the Prophecy had been accidently leaked.

I nodded at them, silently asking them to continue. If they noticed my momentary shock they did not say anything but just continued.

"The wizard on the far left is Ron Weasley, the witch to my left is his wife, Hermione Granger, and the beautiful lady on my right, is Ginny Weasley."

The Weasleys! They were another family affected by the massacre but they had lost two of their youngest children and never got over it. The Weasley parents had become overprotective of their other children and close to the Potters. They would often go out together and buy presents for their deceased children on special occasions. Other families had gotten over their grief and had more children but these two families never did.

Voldemort knew this and took special pleasure by attacking them on their shopping trips and torturing them with the Cruciatus as well as taunting them about their children.

And Granger name sounds familiar as well, if I am not wrong then it was one of the Muggle families whose daughter was a witch and thus they were killed along with their daughter.

This is not good. If it is the truth, and these people are who they say they are, then I do not want to think how the Potters and the Weasleys will react. No, this cannot be the truth. These people are either Death Eaters who have disguised themselves to torture those poor souls or fate has once again played a very cruel joke.

But what if these are the people from the Prophecy? No, that cannot be, even if it is, the Potters and the Weasleys will be shattered. But you don't know that! Maybe they will finally overcome their grief, and accept these people as their children. But what if they have to go back? Also how are they so similar to the Founders then? I have to find out more, I cannot let the Potters and Weasleys go through any more pain. They will be deeply affected by this, whether they will react positively or not, remains to be seen. But if I can help it, I will not let this get to them, they will be broken beyond repair. They are only just holding it together, but if they get to know this I do not want to think how they will react. Ahh, but what if this is the truth? Then wouldn't it heal them? Make them better? Well it might but they might not get past the initial reaction of horror.

No I need to find out more, how is this even possible?

"Explain"

* * *

"Perhaps the best place to start is by telling you our real names. My name in this birth is Harry Potter" revealed Salazar.

The dark haired wizard paused to observe the reaction to his name. Others were also watching Dumbledore closely and noticed that at the mention of his name, Dumbledore's eyes widened. This was not unusual, but what they saw next was something unexpected for the visitors. Dumbledore's face went grave and his eyes showed deep pain. However, Dumbledore nodded for Harry to go on.

"The wizard on far left is Ron Weasley, the witch to my left is his wife Hermione Granger; and the beautiful lady on my right is Ginny Weasley."

By now Dumbledore's eyes were not only wide but the twinkle was also replaced with a look of pure horror.

It was a few minutes in which Dumbledore's expression varied from horror to shock to anguish to regret to pain to fear to denial to hope again denial and finally settled with a determined look with a hint of hope and curiosity. Finally, when he addressed the founders, his voice was devoid of any emotion.

"Explain"

"I believe that starting at the beginning is the best way to make the situation as simple as possible." Began Rowena Ravenclaw, or, as she was now known, Hermione Granger. "Well, in our world I was born on the nineteenth of September ninety seventy five, Ron here was born on the first of March nineteen eighty , Harry was born on the thirty first of July of the same year and Ginny was born on the eleventh of August in eighty one." At the mention of these dates, Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise

Before starting Hogwarts, only Ron and Ginny knew each other as they are siblings. Harry, Ron and I met at the Hogwarts express and started Hogwarts together. Ginny joined a year later. The three of us had an adventurous school life to say the least. Ginny had a relatively quiet life. However at the end of our fifth year, the Professor Dumbledore in our world revealed that there was a prophecy which indicated that Harry will be the one to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort." A frown adorned the face of the Headmaster at the mention of this prophecy. It seemed that he wanted to know this prophecy in detail but held his tongue.

"The following year, Dumbledore gave Harry some information to help him in the quest to defeat Voldemort. Apparently we had to search for about four magical objects that Dumbledore thought kept Voldemort alive. But, before the Headmaster could give us more information on how to destroy these objects, he died in the fall of the academic year." Dumbledore shifted slightly upon hearing of the news of his death.

"After the Headmaster's funeral when we went back into the castle to get our belongings and leave for the summer, Hogwarts welcomed us and all four of us fainted." Rowena continued with a fond smile on her face. This expression was mirrored in all four of them.

"The teachers took us to the Hospital wing and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with us and assumed that we were exhausted due to the trauma of losing the Headmaster. When we woke up two days later, we were sent home. We felt different but couldn't figure out what exactly was different, we felt as if our heads were crammed with information that we couldn't decipher. So we all left to go to our respective homes. After a few weeks we managed to understand the information and put it in order. It appeared as if Hogwarts had unlocked our memories of our previous birth."

Rowena paused here to give the Headmaster time to follow the information. She could see from the Headmaster's expression that their dates of birth were of some importance in this world but could not understand what. The other three Founders also noticed the same thing but decided to file the fact for further investigation later. During the entire explanation the Headmaster's expression changed from grave and horror to hope.

Rowena began speaking again "We realised that in our previous birth that we were the Founders of Hogwarts. We remembered every incident of our previous lives. This included our knowledge of magic and other things. What happened had not only unlocked our memories but even changed our bodies to become like the Founders."

Rowena continued after a brief pause with a faraway look on her face "When we met for a few days, we were more comfortable in addressing each other by our former names, as we had recognised each other in our new incarnation. We decide to use our knowledge and skills and focus on the task to save the Wizarding world. We had a mission to complete and had to find those four objects. Thus the three of us could not return to Hogwarts."

"However Ginny could not join us in our quest as she was still underage. She also wanted to be there for the students and do what she can to help them. So while she was at Hogwarts the three of us went to search and destroy these objects by combining our knowledge of our previous birth and the information that Dumbledore provided us. But we needed to go into Hogwarts for the last two objects. However we realised that a war might break out should we attempt to break into Hogwarts. So we managed to communicate with Ginny and we got into full battalion outfits from our previous birth and went to Hogwarts.

"Just as we had anticipated, Voldemort got this information and attacked Hogwarts. While the four of us were busy search for these objects and destroying them, the other students, professors and some … others … were trying to keep the Death Eaters at bay. By the time we finished with our work, the light side had lost more than half of its forces. We joined the fray and within a few minutes gained an upper hand in the battle. When Voldemort saw that his army was losing, he joined in with three of his strongest duellists. By now all the other Death Eaters were killed or captured and it was only the four of us duelling with the four of them. Harry here knew the most about dark arts spells than any of us as he was the reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin. After some fierce exchange the three of us managed to overpower Voldemort's three strongest duellists." Rowena took a deep breath, her gaze far away as she relived that battle.

"But Sal and Voldemort were still duelling." She continued speaking, her voice much softer. "So we decided to aid Sal and created a distraction for Voldemort. The result was that Sal here was able to deal a fatal blow to Voldemort. However what we failed to realise was that during all this something very unique happened." Rowena again paused, her eyes closed. Dumbledore looked deep in thought with a frown on his face. After a few moments he nodded for her to continue.

"We think that—with the combination of the simple, though strong, Darkness of the Killing Curse; the equally straightforward and strong spells from Salazar; the pure emotion of unity, protectiveness and love between the four of us and the intricate variables of the inherently Light-oriented brother Phoenix wands might have created a unique Arithmatical upheaval in the boundaries of time and space, throwing the four of us into an Alternate universe."

Still frowning in thought, Rownea continued. "We saw Voldemort die before darkness surrounded us and the next thing we knew was that we were on the empty grounds of Hogwarts and after a few moments you came out of the main door; and called us the Founders. We knew something very strange had happened so we decided to act as founders at least until we knew it was safe. However after returning to the office, seeing Fawkes and with your explanation we realised that you are indeed Albus Dumbledore. I am sure you understand our point of view, Headmaster."

After completing her explanation, Rowena fell silent and observed the Headmaster's expression to get some idea of his chain of thoughts.

* * *

Dumbledore on other hand was in deep thought; he had of course read about Alternate universes. He also knew that there were only a few things that could gather enough energy to create an upheaval strong enough to throw the inhabitants of one dimension into alternate dimension. The combination that Lady Ravenclaw mentioned certainly seemed to have enough potential. Furthermore, the fact that these people addressed Tom as Voldemort rather than the Dark Lord or He Who Must Not Be Named or something equally trivial was enough proof for Dumbledore to know that these people were not the supporters of Voldemort and thus were trustworthy.

The two things that Dumbledore found most interesting were their date of births and the fact that they mentioned that they (especially Salazar Slytherin) defeated Voldemort in their own universe. Maybe they can help to defeat Voldemort here as well? The prophecy did mention that four people will unite to defeat Voldemort and that those four people will be born in the time span of three years.

The exact years that these four were born in.

The prophecy was the reason that there were no students in the Wizarding world who were born in those years. The reason that Hogwarts had no students for those years. Also the reason that the Wizarding World in general had no hope. Is it possible that the prophecy was referring to these individuals rather than the children born in this world? Even if that is not the truth then wouldn't having the four legendary figures fighting from the side of light, uplift the spirits of the general Wizarding population? Yes it would certainly do so. But I will have to tell them what happened in this world to know where the split happened and what are the common things in these two realities. That is not my style, but for the Greater Good it is the only way and I will do it. Maybe it would be better to let the Wizarding World think that they are indeed the Founders and that might also be better for the Potters, Lupin, Black and the Weasleys. Yes, but first I need to offer them some answers and we can decide together. Maybe finally I can share some of the burden of the war with these strong shoulders.


	5. Chapter 5: The New World

**Hello all,**

I once again apologise for the delay in posting this new chapter. I was caught up in a few things. Never mind, the new chapter is out now and I hope that it meets your expectations. Please do leave a comment to let me know what you liked and what you didn't like.

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

**Chapter Five: The New World**

Whilst Dumbledore was deep in thoughts, the founders were silent to give him time. While they knew the exact moment when Dumbledore reached a decision, through observing his body language and gestures, they remained silent. Dumbledore would have to begin this time. "Thank you for sharing this with me," the headmaster said finally. "After your explanation I can understand your hesitation in sharing the entire story with me; and I am really grateful to you that you decided to trust me with something so vital. I have read something about Alternate Universes at some point in time; I did not go deep into the subject. I will be willing to help you with your research on the subject.

"From what little I remember about Alternate Realities is that these two realities were one, at some point in time. Then at a crucial moment, these two realities split and continued differently from there. So I think that we need to find that crucial point at which our realities split, so that I can update you on the events that took place after that point. Please do correct me if I am wrong here." Dumbledore paused to get the input of the four visitors.

"That is the essence of the Alternate Realities, Headmaster and I agree that it is important to find that crucial point. Perhaps we should start at some more recent events, as both of our realities have Lord Voldemort. In our reality before the rise of Lord Voldemort there was another Dark Lord that was defeated by you. His name was Grindelwald, and he was defeated in nineteen forty five by you. Does that sound familiar to you?" Salazar replied.

"That event seems consistent, after nineteen forty five there were about twenty-five years of relative peace. In nineteen seventy, trouble seemed to have begun underground. There were movements in the dark communities but there was no harm done to the society in general. However, in late seventy-six, there was a major attack on the Diagon Alley and Lord Voldemort declared himself as a Dark Lord. His followers were all masked people so it was difficult to recognise them." Dumbledore explained with a faraway look as he relived the terror of those years.

"This went on for about four years; however the frequency and magnitude of the attacks had decreased. One night in middle of May in nineteen eighty, I was interviewing a lady for the post of Divination, when she recited a prophecy to me." Dumbledore paused to get the visitor's input.

"The events seem consistent till now. As we said earlier, the prophecy referred to a boy who will be born in the end of July and will have the power to defeat the Dark Lord. Is that what the prophecy said in this dimension?" Godric spoke for the first time.

"No, the prophecy was very different in this dimension," After saying so, Dumbledore stood up and took out his Pensieve from the cupboard and deposited the memory of the prophecy in the Pensieve. He then gestured the founders to follow him in the Pensieve to witness the prophecy.

As they went in the Pensieve, they landed in one of the rooms that they recognised to be of Hogshead. Professor Trelawney and professor Dumbledore were seated on the table and Professor Dumbledore was just getting up to leave. That was when Professor Trelawney suddenly spoke in a loud, harsh voice "THEY WILL BE BORN"

Professor Trelawney had gone stiff in her chair; her eyes were out-of-focus and her mouth drooping.

"_Four will reunite to create the power to destroy the dark lord_

_Two born in this year, one is already here and one will join them next year,_

_Together they will complete the quadrant._

_The phoenix, the lion, the otter, and the horse will reunite_

_The phoenix will be marked and would repeat a victory_

_The otter will set the ground and achieve the wish of unity_

_The lion will be the epitome of bravery and a great pillar of strength_

_The horse will fulfil its hopes and reunite with the phoenix_

_Four will unite to create the power and channel through the phoenix to destroy the dark lord"_

After coming out of Pensieve, everyone settled back and after a few moments Dumbledore continued.

"Halfway through, we realised there was someone eavesdropping. He was a Death Eater who relayed the prophecy to Voldemort" Dumbledore said in a sad and disappointed voice

"Well that is similar to what happened in our timeline as well, but the contents of the prophecy was different. How much did the eavesdropper hear, and what did Voldemort decide to do after listening to it?" Salazar asked whilst bracing himself to hear some horrible story.

"The eavesdropper only heard the first two lines of the prophecy. Meaning he only knew that four children born in a time gap of three years will reunite and together they will have the power to kill Voldemort." Dumbledore paused for a moment. After that it seemed that it took a lot of effort to answer the next question

"Voldemort decided that he would need to eliminate the threat before they had the chance to 'unite and create the power'. Thus he tracked down every single magical child born in those three years and managed to kill them all. He especially killed Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Ronald and Ginevra Weasley with his own hands as they were what he considered the biggest threats to him. He also killed Marlene McKinnon, Harry's Godmother and his babysitter of the day, young Neville's parents, and Fabian and Gideon Prewett – as they were babysitting young Ronald and Ginevra. Along with the children born in magical families, he also managed to get hold of list of Muggle born children and killed most of them whilst they were at playschool. There were many play schools destroyed in that time. However there was one case where his Death Eater directly attacked a Muggle home. They were killed along with their one and half year old daughter Hermione Granger." Dumbledore fell silent but his eyes were far away as if watching the scene of destruction in front of his eyes at that very moment.

All four founders were in shock and horror at the revelations and they could not find words to describe their feelings. They thought that the war in their world was bad but to eliminate an entire generation of witches and wizards?

However before they could form words to express their shock, Dumbledore continued with his story.

"Almost all of our good fighters were killed or permanently injured. Either that or they had lost a child and were too disheartened by that fact. Especially the Weasleys, Potters, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. They have still not gotten over how Voldemort killed young Harry, Ron and Ginny. They have lost the confidence to ever be in a battle or fight back, so Voldemort takes great pleasure attacking them and watching them crumble and not fight back. They were our most talented fighters; but now they are here at Hogwarts teaching and training the next generation. They are affected so badly that they never had any more children, as they have a fear in themselves that if they did have another child then even that child will be killed by Voldemort himself."

Dumbledore had tears in his eyes so he paused to wipe them off and also to give a few moments to the travellers.

"After that, the light side did not have many fighters and the people who are still alive have lost hope or something to fight for. I have done what I can to keep Hogwarts safe. Till now I have managed to keep the Death Eaters out of Hogwarts but the students here live in fear of what is happening to their family and friends. We had three years without any student and that was the time when the atmosphere at Hogwarts was very tense."

Dumbledore took a sip of water and took a moment to come back from those memories before continuing. During this time, there was a moment of complete silence where the travellers sat there in a state of complete shock, trying to imagine the horrors that were a reality in this world.

Ron and Ginny were thinking about their family and their parents and trying to imagine what they must have gone through.

Hermione was devastated about her parents' death but then she thought of the state of the Potters and the Weasleys, she felt that at least her parents did not suffer through that pain. However, just as she thought of that she could see the face of Mrs Weasley in front of her eyes. But something was not right. Mrs Weasley's face was filled with grief, pain and longing rather than happiness and contentment. She had tears in her eyes just thinking of it and could not even begin to think what it must have been like to live a life like that. She thought her life would be like that as well now, as everyone in her world was dead. But maybe, just maybe, she could live here and be there for these people.

All three were trying to think how it might feel to live after losing everything and imagine losing all hope and feel all alone in the world.

Harry on the other hand, was extremely happy to know that everyone that he loved was alive in this world, but he did not want them to live like that. He knew exactly how it felt to be left all alone in the world without any hope. He was thinking back to his own life and remembering how he missed his parents whilst growing up. How he always wished for someone to rescue him and come for him and be his ray of hope. Then coming to Hogwarts and entering his parents' world but still feeling alone. Then finally meeting Sirius and Remus and having a sense of belonging for the first time in his life and then their deaths and how after Sirius' death he didn't want to fight anymore. How he was afraid that if he let anyone close to him anymore, then Voldemort would target and kill them. How he had accepted that he was born to live alone.

He felt he knew how his parents, the Weasleys, Sirius and Remus must have felt and how they must still be feeling. He felt miserable and wanted to do something for them. However he knew one thing, that if he told them that he was Harry and how he was saved then they will be feeling guilty about not being able to do the same for 'their Harry'.

He did not know what to do, or how to reduce their pain. But he knew one thing for sure; he will not let them suffer anymore. He will take away their fear of losing someone close to them. Even if it killed him. He will not let them die and try his best to make life easier, especially for his parents, Sirius and Remus. He will do what he could not for his parents, Sirius and Remus in his own world. He will protect them with all that he has. He will use any and all the means available at his disposal to destroy Voldemort.

* * *

That is it for now. Please please please do review as it really helps me to improve it. I hope this chapter is upto your expectations. Until next chapter then.


	6. Chapter 6: Decisions

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: I know that many of you might be confused as I keep switching from the names of the Four Founders to our trio and Ginny; and vice versa. However, it was necessary to do that till last chapter as they were all making revelations and also using the names of our trio + Ginny made it easier to relate the Four Founders to them. But enough of the confusion, from this chapter onwards, I will only address them as Founders. So once again for everyone's information: Harry is Salazar, Hermione is Rowena, Ron is Godric and Ginny is Helga.

I hope this clears the confusion. If you have any more questions or suggestions then feel free to tell me about it in your review of via PM. Enjoy reading.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Decisions**

Having lived in this world, Dumbledore was the first to come out of his thoughts.

"We need to make a decision." Said Dumbledore gently to break their chain of thoughts

"Everyone in the Great Hall will know that some people have appeared and we will need a story to tell them. We have a few options, first being that we tell them the entire truth, I don't think that it will be a good option for various reasons."

"Yes, the entire truth can lead to many unwanted complications that we would rather not involve ourselves with." Salazar agreed

"Indeed," Dumbledore nodded. "Our second option is that we tell them that you are the Founders and have somehow stumbled into the future. This option seems the best as it will explain your lack of knowledge to some of the things and it will ensure that you gain respect and are able to unite the students of Hogwarts."

"Certainly, it will also ensure that people will have a hope that they can win this war against Voldemort." Salazar added

"Does that mean that you are willing to help us in this war?" Dumbledore asked with hope filled in his eyes.

"Indeed yes Professor, it seems that we are here for a long period of time, and we cannot just let people die when there is something we can do about it; and we will also fulfil the prophecy in the meantime." Helga agreed whilst the trio nodded in agreement.

"That is more than what I could ask for. I thank you for this. However there is one more option I can think of. I do not think it is advisable but it can certainly be considered. We have a small group of Witches and Wizards that were or are still fighting with Voldemort's rule. We are not very active but we try to keep Hogwarts and some of the residences safe. We also help in the aftermath of attacks. Maybe we can tell them the entire truth. It will boost their confidence. This group is called the Order of the Phoenix". Dumbledore suggested.

"Professor, that is a good suggestion but I wanted to inquire why you think that it is not advisable that we tell the entire truth to the Order of the Phoenix?." Rowena inquired with a confused look on her face. She couldn't understand why they cannot share this with such a trusted group. Even Godric and Helga seemed confused at this.

However before Dumbledore could reply, Salazar explained, "Because Sirius, Remus, Mr & Mrs Weasley and my parents are also a part of this group." Salazar turned to see his friends' faces before continuing.

"Think over it, they have spent almost twenty years trying to protect what is left of their family. Also they are still mourning us and are trying to get over the fact that their children were killed by Voldemort. Do you think they are likely to just accept us and be happy?"

Salazar paused for a few moments to let them think this over before he continued.

"Ric Helga, I know that your parents will happily accept us, but have you ever thought what your mother might feel?" He paused again to give them a chance to contemplate what their mother would feel.

"If I know her, then she will feel two things at one time, she will be extremely happy to see you both healthy and alive, but at the same time she will break down thinking that she couldn't save you in this world! Do you want her to go through this?"

"But Sal don't you think that they will want to know us? We are here and we cannot change that, and we cannot hide our realities from them for long, they will come to know at some time." Helga countered

"I agree but I feel that we need to let them get to know us as individuals before we tell them who we really are. This way we can know them as your parents in this world; they will have a hope to get revenge from Voldemort and they will also not stop us from fighting." Explained Salazar

"You think they will stop us from fighting?" Rowena exclaimed

"Think over it Row, Molly withheld information from us for "our own safety". Granted that she was following Dumbledore's orders in our fifth year, but what about the information that Dumbledore was willing to share? If you remember, she was the one who told Sirius not to answer our questions. Then last year, we became adults and she knew that we have some mission that Dumbledore left us. But she still did not seem willing to allow us to fight. Given her way she would have not let us fight at all. That was when she had lost her brothers in the First War. The Mrs Weasley in this world has lost our counterparts to Voldemort. Do you think she will let us face him again if she came to know who we were?"

Everyone contemplated what he said and realised that he was right.

"I agree with you Sal, mum might stop us from going out to fight, but if she knew that we are capable of fighting and got to know us as Founders first then she will respect us and even fight with us. I do not like it but I think what you are saying is the right way to do things, at least for the time being." Godric agreed

After listening to Godric, even Rowena and Helga nodded to give their consent.

* * *

While all this was going on Dumbledore was quietly listening in on their conversation. He was impressed by the way Salazar (or as he was called in this life "Harry") explained the situation.

However he was deep in thought, 'What Salazar has stated was indeed one of the reasons why it was not a good idea to reveal their true identities. However the main reason was the Potters.

He knew for a fact that they did not judge a person based on their dark background. James' friendship with a werewolf (Remus) and a dark wizard by birth (Sirius) was enough proof of that. However, all four of them loved little Harry a lot, and when little Harry died they were hurt very deeply. While Remus, Sirius and Lily might overlook the dark background of this Harry; James will not do so.'

'James will not accept this Harry as Salazar easily and be extremely rude with him.' Dumbledore thought. 'He might also become over protective of Lily and his friends and try to 'save' them from Salazar.'

'James had always hated Slytherins right from his childhood and the fact that his very precious son was killed by the heir of Slytherin has only added to his hate. No, James hates Slytherin way too much and he will not accept this Salazar reincarnated Harry as the alternate version of his son. Well his love for his son might win, but that will only be when James realises that this Harry/Salazar is not evil. Furthermore, if James will not accept this Harry/Salazar than the other three will also not talk to him as they would not want to hurt James more. They are one of the most closely knitted groups I have ever seen. Whatever their decision will be, the will not leave each other's side.'

'Now the key to this problem was that James gets to know Salazar as an individual and before telling him who Salazar really is. At least till they find out on their own or they start trusting Salazar, whichever comes first.'

However what is interesting here is that Salazar does not want to draw attention to this situation. Probably because he knows that this might be James' reaction. I will have to keep an eye on it but for now I will let it go. Yes, that seems to be the right choice for now. In any case, Salazar's reasoning is also true, Molly would not let them fight and that would only lead to a disaster.'

* * *

Whilst Dumbledore was in his thoughts, Rowena noticed that Salazar was not talking about his parents, Remus or Sirius. She suspected that this was the main reason he did not want to reveal their true identities to everyone. She also realised that if her suspicion was right then it will be very important for Salazar to first win the trust of those four people. And if it was important for Salazar then she will be with him. That was the main reason why she agreed with Salazar's suggestion.

Unknown to her, Godric and Helga had also noticed Salazar's omission of his parents, Sirius and Remus and had suspected the same thing as Hermione. It was also the main reason why they agreed with Salazar. Salazar had always been there for them when they needed him the most, especially when their parents were killed by Voldemort's Death Eaters. If they could do something for Salazar then they were ready for it. Even if that meant not being able to tell their real identities to the alternate versions of their dead parents for a while; they will do it for Salazar.

Salazar on the other hand was lost in the thoughts of Sirius, Remus and his parents and how he will not be able to take their hate, especially after knowing who he really was. He knew he was being a coward by not facing them, but he did not want to be rejected again. As that will be equal to losing them again; and that he cannot take.

Everyone was brought back from their thoughts by Hermione's question to Dumbledore.

"Headmaster, was that your reason too?" Rowena inquired as she had a doubt that this was not the reason when Dumbledore suggested this option.

"Yes, indeed that was one of the reasons. The other reason being that the less people knows about this, the better the chance that this will not be leaked." Dumbledore replied. "That will give us a distinct advantage against Voldemort; after all knowledge is power, and a very powerful one at that." He chose to omit the fact that his other main reason was the Potters.

Everyone nodded acknowledging that reason as well.

"So I will introduce you to the school as the Founders tomorrow. The story is that you were in the middle of a battle and somehow managed to land yourselves in future. Is that all right?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Yes Headmaster, that seems perfect, furthermore I think that it would be beneficial for all if we refer to ourselves as the founders even amongst ourselves. This will ensure that we do not slip up in front of others." Salazar suggested

"Yes that will be a good idea mate." Godric agreed.

Rowena and Helga nodded.

"If that is sorted then we would take your leave for the night Headmaster, we will see you at the Great Hall tomorrow for breakfast" Salazar concluded.

"Indeed, I will ask the House-Elves to guide you to your quarters." Dumbledore suggested

"That will not be required Headmaster, all of us have our own secret quarters that are hidden in this castle" Rowena informed

After this everyone stood up and the four travelers left for their quarters; whilst Dumbledore went to his sleeping quarters with a smile on his face and hope in his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7: Reflections

**Note:** I apologise for the long delay, I have been very busy and hence did not get any time to write the chapter. I have finally been able to finish it.

I have made a minor change in Chapter 3, so now the year that the Founders have landed in is 1996 and not 2000 as before.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Reflections**

In the meantime, while Professor Dumbledore was having his conversation with the reincarnations of the founders, Hagrid, Professors, McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape returned to the Great Hall.

As the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall took her place in the podium and addressed the student population and the rest of the staff members.

"The headmaster is currently assessing the situation that had caused the disturbance a few minutes ago. However, for now I can assure everyone that Hogwarts is not under any sort of danger. You will be briefed about the situation tomorrow. But for now, I request the Prefects and Head Girl and Boy to escort everyone to their dormitories. I am sure everyone is tired from the long journey. So have some rest and we will see you all tomorrow morning at eight thirty here at the Great Hall for breakfast."

Dismissed, the students got up and lead by the prefects, made their way back to their dormitories for the night.

As the Great Hall emptied of the pupils, the teachers gathered around Professor McGonagall, curious about what she really knew. However Professor McGonagall answered their unasked questions.

"When we went out, we found four individuals. They had a strong resemblance to … certain people. For now I am not sure of their identities. But I can tell you that they are not a threat to anyone and that Albus is currently talking to them. I am sure that Albus will introduce them tomorrow morning. Until then, I suggest that we do not worry and get some sleep. "

Everyone agreed to this and left for their quarters.

* * *

As Severus Snape was walking to his dungeons, he found himself recalling the unexpected events of the evening.

He found himself hoping for the impossible.

It wouldn't do to get his hopes up over something so obviously too good to be true, he warned himself sternly. There was after all no way to travel this far in future. Furthermore, he had read history and such a trip was not mentioned anywhere in any of the books. Surely something of this magnitude would be mentioned somewhere! No, he would not allow himself to believe this unless Albus confirmed it.

Deciding thus, the Potions Master continued his journey towards his quarters. Entering his quarters he quickly changed into his night clothes and went to sleep.

* * *

Professor McGonagall was walking towards her own quarters and, just as her colleague, Professor Snape, found herself recollecting the events of the evening.

She was not sure what to think and what to believe. She always prided herself in having her beliefs based on verifiable facts. But having the Founders here was just not logical. But the fact remained that there were four people on Hogwarts' grounds today; and it was also a fact that these four people resembled the Founders of Hogwarts.

She mused about the idea till she reached the portrait guarding her quarters. Before entering, she decided to take her own advice and not think too much and wait for Albus to clarify the facts.

Deciding thus she went to her quarters and went to bed.

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid was not sure what happened in the evening, but he was sure that Professor Dumbledore will be able to tell them more tomorrow. Thus having full faith on Professor Dumbledore, Hagrid went to sleep.

* * *

Filius Flitwick always prided himself with knowledge, he was after all the Head of Ravenclaw house; and the House of Ravenclaw was known for its thirst of knowledge.

However, the event of the evening was something he had never heard of. Thus he decided to re-read as many books as he had on the History of the Founders and see if he can spot anything that might indicate this trip of theirs.

* * *

However, not all professors were heading for their quarters. Professors Black and Lupin, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and the Arithmancy professor respectively both accompanied their mutual friend, the Transfiguration Master, Professor Potter, and his wife, the Ancient Runes teacher to their quarters.

These four friends made their way quietly, each of them thinking over a few things. However unlike their colleagues, they were not just thinking about the explosion. They believed Professor McGonagall and did not think too much of it.

They were thinking about the school and how there are less fourth to seventh year students than normal. In fact, there were no sixth years at all. They were all thinking about 'Harry' and how he would be in his sixth year, if not for that prophecy and the rat traitor.

Once they reached the quarters, everyone settled down near the fire. No one wanted to begin the gloomy conversation. This had been the routine for the last six years now. Ever since the time when there were no students in one year, as each and every student was killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Finally after several moments of silence, Lily spoke up

"Do we have any classes tomorrow?"

"No," James replied sullenly. "Minerva has made sure that we have a day off tomorrow. She knew we would want to be with the Weasleys and remember Harry tomorrow."

"Speaking of which," Lupin spoke up, looking at Professor Sirius Black. "Padfoot, have you sent them a message about where we are meeting tomorrow?"

The man in question slapped his forehead. "Merlin, I totally forgot about that. I will send them an owl now, and ask them to meet us at Hogsmeade. I don't know what Albus will reveal tomorrow about those four mysterious individuals and how long will it take. Do you think I should ask them to meet us at lunch or later in the evening around tea time?"

"I think tea time would be fine. That will give us enough time to sort everything out." Answered James

Lily and Remus nodded in approval and Sirius quickly noted the time and place on a piece of parchment and went to send it with an owl.

Whilst Sirius was away, silence fell in the room again. Soon Sirius joined them and after a while everyone retired to their beds without saying anything to each other.

* * *

In a deserted looking manor at Little Hangleton, bone chilling laughter was heard, as the owner of the laughter read the contents of a piece of parchment.

"Fools, it almost takes the fun out of chasing them and torturing them. Aaah… but I shall not take the pleasure away from you, my dears. Bellatrix, I know how much you enjoy torturing them, so you shall lead the group. Expect six. Have fun dears."

"Yes My Lord, thank you for the opportunity, shall I take everyone who love to torture them?"

"But of course Bella, how can I refuse anyone such amusement? But make sure you don't bring them here, will you?"

"Of course, My Lord, as you wish"

* * *

_A/N: So there we are, do let me know what you think of the chapter and who are the would be victims of the Death Eaters. _


	8. Chapter 8: A peek into the past

Here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

* * *

**Chapter Eight: A peek into the past**

**_Previously: _**_"Indeed, I will ask the House-Elves to guide you to your quarters." Dumbledore suggested_

"_That will not be required Headmaster, all of us have our own secret quarters that are hidden in this castle" Rowena informed_

_After this everyone stood up and the four travelers left for their quarters; whilst Dumbledore went to his sleeping quarters with a smile on his face and hope in his eyes._

* * *

Rowena and Godric went to the Gryffindor quarters; whilst Salazar and Helga went towards the Hufflepuff quarters as they were not sure what would the state of Salazar's chambers be after so many years of neglect. With the other founders' quarters it would not be a problem as House elves were permitted to enter their chambers but Salazar had not allowed that due to the volatility of his potions.

A few hours later, Salazar swung his legs over the side of the bed. The cold stone floor greeted Salazar's feet, and he pulled them back up with a wince. All the spells and enchantments he and Helga had used on their chambers were brittle, having disintegrated over time. The slightest use of any of them destroyed what was left. Although the house elves had kept the chambers clean and the furniture was still in order, the elves could not re-apply the spells. He wouldn't dare to reapply the wards in the middle of the night anyway.

He did not want to think about the state of his chambers, if this was the situation of Helga's chambers.

Nevertheless, getting his Holly wand from the bedside table he conjured himself some slippers. Pulling on his robe, he silently went out into the main hall of the chambers. He cast his glance around the room. It oozed with Helga's personality. One wall was full of sketches of different animals and birds; another wall had portraits of all four founders on the inauguration day of Hogwarts; along with that there was also a portrait of Helga and him on their wedding day. On the opposite side of that was a fireplace and the remaining wall contained book shelves filled with books on healing, different creatures, books written in different languages and the methods of divination.

He looked up at the ceiling of the chambers and smiled at the birds flying about the shadowed ceiling. Helga always loved to watch the sky filled with birds. That was the reason that she had cast this spell all around her chambers. He remembered the time when after their marriage, he had cast the same spell on their bedroom to give her a surprise. He clearly remembered the shocked look on Helga's face when she saw that. She had loved the additional touch he had put in the spell, so now the ceiling in his bed chambers was a replica of the weather outside. He remembered how excited Helga was and how she had run to get Rowena and Godric to see that. After seeing his spell work Rowena had almost pleaded him to show her the spell and together all four founders had done the exact same thing to the Great Hall. The spell was still active in the Great Hall due to the power of all four founders behind it.

He then jabbed his wand at a seemingly innocuous bit of wall before him, and muttered "To the Training Area, please."

In a flash of light, he was whisked away, and found himself, as suddenly as he had left, within the Founder's Training Room. This was one of the features that all founders had in their chambers for ease of access to the training room.

Salazar stepped off the transportation stones and into the training room proper, rolling his head and stretching his arms.

The Training Area, as they called it, was really much more than merely a room for keeping fit. It was only accessible through the Founder's private chambers. There were four separate rooms.

The first was the main room where Salazar currently was. The colors of the four Houses each adorned a separate wall of the big, square central room. Each wall had a large recessed area with a personal Pensieve, a large desk and specialized work station tailored to the abilities and Masteries of each Founder. Godric's nook had instruments for weapons creation. Helga's niche was lined in shelves filled with Healer's instruments, as Rowena's shelves were filled with rare texts and ancient scrolls. Salazar's alcove included a full potions lab.

The next room was accessible from a doorway between Godric and Salazar's tables. This was where the founders practiced dueling with each other. This room was warded so that no stray spells would harm the onlookers and it had a dueling stage in the center of the hall. It also had a separate area from where people could watch the duel. It was sometimes used by the ladies or some of the other professors, when they wanted to watch the four take on each other.

The next room was adorned with all sorts of weapons; it was where the founders would train with weapons. This room also had a place from where people could watch the four training and it was accessible form the door between Helga and Godric's tables.

The final room which was accessible from the door between Helga and Rowena's tables was the common room of the Founders. It was a large room with plush couches and a stone fireplace. On one of the walls was a password portrait which led to different places in the castle based on the password. The wall next to it held maps of Hogwarts, the British Isles and Europe. It also held a sort of board where they could write notes or draw diagrams. It was used as a planning area as well for a time of war or something similar. The final wall had a sort of two way mirror that could be used to observe any part of the castle or the grounds.

Salazar smiled as he looked around. The heavy, constant use of magic in the upper floors had preserved all the furniture and décor, and not a single thing was missing from its place. After having a brief look around the main room and at his desk, he moved to the common room. He just wanted to have a quiet place to sit.

* * *

However, as he entered the room he found that Rowena and Godric were already seated near the fireplace in silence. Both of them looked up as they heard Salazar entering and smiled at him before turning back to gazing in the fireplace. As Salazar sat on a couch, Rowena looked at him and smiled sadly before speaking.

"Cannot sleep?"

Salazar chuckled "You know, Row, I could ask the same question to the both of you."

"Well mate, we couldn't sleep at all so we came straight here, this room always provided warmth and a place to think." Godric replied whilst still not looking away from the fire burning in the fireplace. "Is Helga asleep?" Rowena questioned

Salazar smiled before replying "Yes she finally fell asleep a few moments ago. I came here after that as I just could not sleep at all"

"Hmm" was the only reply he got from Rowena before silence fell in the room

After some time Rowena's soft voice broke the silence of the room

"It just seems different, I mean so much has been happening after we regained our memories, and I had felt that after Voldemort's death we would finally have some time to ourselves. With all these things happening we didn't even have time to assimilate our memories. Now after Voldemort's death, we are here and we have to pretend that we are the founders and in a way we are going back to living that life…. It wasn't one of the happiest lives you know; especially after that fateful night."

Rowena's words seemed to break Godric's train of thoughts as well, as he shared his feelings

"I agree with Row mate, you don't know but after you left us every moment of my life I wanted to apologise to you for being such a git. But you just disappeared, and then we got the news that you burned down an entire village and after that we had no news from you. We didn't know what to think or say. Everyone in the Wizarding community was calling you a dark wizard, even the teachers that we had hired were calling you that and were thanking every deity that you were gone. We didn't have any answers to their questions and we didn't know what to think.

"Helga was so distraught after that. She tried to get into your chambers to see if you had left any clue or any letter for her but as usual she found that your chamber was locked. We didn't think too much about it, as you would always do that when you left the castle even for half the day. But after that she would either be in her classes or in her chambers crying. She would wake up in middle of nights and call you out. We didn't know what to do. Her students were so sad and they blamed you for her condition. We always got cases of duels between the two houses and thus had to ban the use of magic in corridors

"We were never the same either. I used to sit here and think back to our fight and wished I would have listened to you and not be such a git. Row would also tell me off for small things and she started being cooped up in her chamber working on God knows what.

"We all missed you, mate. When you went we thought it was like every other fight we had and you would come back after cooling down. But you never did! Was I really that harsh on you? I am really sorry, I never meant to hurt you or drive you away!"

Godric was in tears by the time her was finished and was almost pleading for Salazar to understand.

Salazar did not look away from the fireplace and had a blank look on his face. Most people would think that he was heartless but Rowena and Godric knew it was Salazar's way to not show his emotions.

After a few moments Salazar, explained.

"There is no need for you to apologise 'Ric. It was our usual fight and we were equally responsible for it."

"Then why did you not return Sal, why did you abandon us?" Rowena broke in tears as he came to sit near Sal and held his hands.

* * *

**AN:** What happened with Salazar, why did he not return to his friends if the legendary fight between the two founders was not that big? What was the reason behind that fight? Keep guessing and wait till the next update to hear the story of what happened to make everyone think that Salazar Slytherin was evil.

Sorry about the cliff-hanger but I assure you that I will update soon. Till then do let me know what you think had happened to Salazar.


	9. Chapter 9: Salazar's Tale

Here's the next chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter

* * *

**Chapter nine:** Salazar's tale

_**Previously:** "There is no need for you to apologise Ric. It was our usual fight and we were equally responsible for it."_

"_Then why did you not return Sal, why did you abandon us?" Rowena broke in tears as he came to sit near Sal and held his hands._

* * *

"I never abandoned you lot. You were right in your assumption that I had gone out to cool my temper down." Salazar paused in his explanation and chuckled without humour.

"I knew that 'Ric would never agree on my idea of having Muggleborns taken away from their families at an early age (after wiping the memories of the parents) and then raising them in our society. I also knew that you and Helga would side with 'Ric on this one, 'Row. It was cruel, I agree. That was the reason I never pushed that idea further. But what really got me was that your proposal of having the parents of Muggleborns visit Hogwarts! You refused to listen to me and also refused to let me put any security spells to repel Muggles! I knew that whilst most parents of Muggleborn children were not fully against the idea of magic there were some who wanted nothing but to kill those people who had magic inside them. I just wanted to protect the students and other residents of Hogwarts. I wanted to avoid a full out war between the Muggles and ourselves. Was that really such a bad idea?"

Finally Salazar looked at Godric and Rowena, with questions in his eyes. Both Godric and Rowena couldn't meet his eyes and looked down to their laps. They remembered the time when there was a full out war between the Muggles and wizards at Hogwarts. That was after Salazar's disappearance. It was then they realised that what Salazar was suggesting was right. They realised that they had made a mistake in understanding their friend. But the milk was already spilled and there was no point in crying about it.

After a few moments of silence Salazar looked at the fire again and continued with his story

"The security of the residents of Hogwarts was on my shoulders, and I did not want to risk that by inviting Muggles to visit the castle. But you never gave me the chance to explain myself properly. Instead you always shouted at me, and blamed me of being corrupted by my use of the hidden arts. You thought that the hidden arts and the rituals that I used were the reason behind my heartless behaviour. You forgot that to be a Lord of the land, you have to be able to keep your emotions in check. That is what I was taught since my childhood. Never to show my emotions and think about the security of my people first."

Salazar sighed heavily

"You knew everything, you knew the reason behind my behaviour, yet you chose to ignore it." he continued bitterly. "I never had a brother, you know and I always regarded you as my brother, 'Ric. But when you said such things to me, it hurt… it hurt very deeply. I always veiled my hurt feelings behind anger or put on a neutral expression. That was why you thought that I was heartless."

Salazar chuckled lightly at the irony of the situation and looked down at his hands on his lap.

"I was never angry after our fights, I was hurt and lonely. I would always seek solitude after that. Hence I would leave the castle from a hidden passage inside my chamber and go into a Muggle village where no one knew me."

Salazar paused with a faraway look in his eyes as if he was reliving his lonely trips to the Muggle world away from magic and everything related to it.

"The same thing happened that day. You shouted at me in front of everyone in the castle and I felt insulted and hurt. So I went to seek solitude. I went to my chamber and after locking it went out of Hogwarts through one of the hidden passage. I had left my wand behind in my bed chambers. Helga would have murdered me if I had taken the wand with me. I had learnt that lesson from my previous experience."

All three of them chuckled fondly at the thought of an angry Helga threatening the mighty Salazar. All of them clearly remembered the day Helga had hexed Salazar badly for taking his wand with him to a Muggle village. That day Salazar was upset at something and took off to the Muggle world. He got drunk and had set off some pranks on some of the Muggles in the bar. Helga had reached there in time to save the Muggles and no one was hurt and there were no dire consequences of the situation. However, Helga was extremely angry at Salazar and had hexed Salazar to Mars and back. It had taken Salazar a week before he could walk properly.

"I started walking and reached a Muggle village which was miles away from Hogwarts. I did not want to encounter the Muggles or anyone really; so I turned to go to a forest. But before I could leave I heard a terrible scream of a young child calling out for her parents. I went to investigate. What I saw there froze me in my place. There, in front of me, the entire village was gathered for the burning of a couple. Their two children, a young girl and a boy were made to watch that and the children were screaming for their parents desperately trying to reach them. Both of them were about 6 or 7 years old."

Salazar paused and looked as if he was reliving that night and remembering the horrified faces of the children.

"Just then the wood surrounding the couple was set on fire, and the chief of that village told the couple that they would sell the young girl to recover the cost of the wood and the boy would be made to live with next to no food. They also told them that when the older son would return from the 'freak school' they would burn the two boys together so that there will be no more 'hocus-pocus' corrupting their village."

Godric and Rowena were frozen in their places listening to Salazar's tale. They could almost picture the scene and that made it all the more real for them.

"I realised that this was the family of one of the Hogwarts students. So in a way it was my duty to save them. But I did not have my wand to pour water on the fire. I could have consumed the fire but, that would mean that I would have been the one burning. I still would have done that if it could have saved the family. But it would not have helped. All it would do was to draw attention to me and then the villagers would have killed the family by the weapons that they were all carrying."

Salazar paused again trying to gather his thoughts.

"I made a decision. There was only one way to save that innocent family from those Muggles. That was to divert the fire around the village. I was only focused on saving the couple and didn't realise the consequences of my actions till late. My actions burned the entire village with its residents. The couple and their children were saved. I went to the children to calm them down; but as I bent down to talk to them, I was attacked with a sword on my back. I looked around, and saw that the father of those children had sliced my back with one of the swords. I tried to explain that I meant no harm and that I was trying to save them. But before I could do that, I was attacked again; this time from the back and the front. The mother and the son had both stabbed me with their swords. As I was dying, they told me that it was my fault that their elder son went to Hogwarts. They thanked me for saving them and said that now they can go and join the army that was planning to attack Hogwarts soon. They also told me that they would be welcomed with open arms in that army as they will give the news of the death of one of the founders of the school and the lord of the land."

Rowena and Godric were horrified to know that Salazar knew about the attack but couldn't do anything. Tears were flowing freely from their eyes as they listened to their friend recall dying alone.

After few moments Salazar continued retelling his tale without ever looking away from the fire burning in the fireplace.

"I had to stop them, if that army got the news of my demise than they would attack sooner and Hogwarts will have no chance to defend itself. But if that news did not reach them then there was chance that you three would know about the attack and be prepared."

The other two occupants of the room were stunned at the amount of care that Salazar showed them and more tears ran down their cheeks at the thought of their own actions after this sacrifice form their friend.

"The last piece of magic I performed as Salazar Slytherin was to call the fire element and burn those four people alive. But that cost me dearly as well. I had very little energy left in my body and so the usage of elemental magic drained me and the fire that I had created to burn that family consumed me as well. I embraced death in the hopes that you three would be able keep my Hogwarts safe. I am proud of you, so proud that you were able to save Hogwarts form that attack and also set anti Muggle protective charms to avoid a repeat. "

Silence fell in the room for a few moments, when Salazar paused to collect himself enough to continue speaking. Other occupants were also frozen in their places unable to believe what was revealed to them.

"That was the reason why I burned an entire village, and why you never heard back from me. I wished that I could come back to you and tell you to be ready, but I couldn't."

Salazar finished his story, still refusing to look away from the fire place and meet anyone's eyes. He couldn't bear to look at his friends faces as he knew they wore a horrified expression. He didn't want them to feel sorry for him or feel guilty.

It was also why he never told this to the reincarnated Helga after he regained his memories. He knew that if Helga (or as she was now called – Ginny) knew the truth behind his disappearance she would be devastated. He had researched on the events after regaining his memories and from what little he could find, he gathered that Helga was the last to die from all four of them. He could only imagine the pain Helga must have gone though, not knowing what happened to him and facing the questions and accusations of the world on him.

Salazar was brought out of his musings by someone hugging the breath out of him. All he could see was a mass of bright red hair. After he regained his senses, he realised that it was Ginny/Helga hugging him. He also realised that Helga must have known that he would never tell this thingto her. She would also have known that now that they were back to their home in Hogwarts he would be more likely to pour his feelings to Godric and Rowena. And so she must have pretended to sleep; so that he could slip away and talk to Godric and Rowena. Then she would have crept behind him and listened to everything. She just knew him too well.

Before he knew what was happening he was being hugged by three people at the same time. He had difficult time breathing but he would not have it any other way. At last, he felt the burden on his shoulders lift. He had regained his friends and had come back home. He could deal with anything now and after such a long time he felt at peace.

* * *

**AN:** So that was it.. a little peak into the past of the Founders... how was it? do let me know your views and theories...

**Preview:** the next chapter is one of the most awaited one.. the introduction of the Founders... So how is everyone at Hogwarts going to react and how will the Founders make their appearance... keep reading to find out more ;)


	10. Chapter 10: Introductions

**Hello all,**

Well here is the longest chapter of this story so far, I hope it will meet your expectations. Do let me know what you think of it.

I would also like to thank JadedofMara, she had written her story till the introduction of the Founders, but left it there and I had decided to adopt the story. However, once I started planning my story out, it turned out very different from her writing. Nevertheless, I have still taken bits from her story, so incase some of you have read her story and recognise anything, then the credit will go to her.

**Disclaimer:** Well as everyone knows by now, any characters or places that you recognise from before are not owned by me.

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Introductions**

The founders and the headmaster were standing in the shadows just outside the doors of the Great Hall, watching, as the last of the students entered the room. From what they had observed so far, as they stood there, unnoticed, the whole school was curious about yesterday's events and were clearly looking forward to hearing what Dumbledore had to say.

It was decided that at eight in the morning, the Headmaster would enter the Great Hall and then would introduce them as the Founders. Hence all four of the time travels were dressed in a manner that highlighted their house colours nicely. They had also decided that Helga would enter the Hall first followed by Rowena, Godric and at last Salazar. Helga was very saddened to see the reputation of her house, after she regained her memory, and thus they had all decided to let her take the lead and set the record right.

However this was not what Helga was thinking about at all! She (like all other time travellers) was still thinking about the conversation of the previous night. She had pretended to be asleep in her quarters as she knew that only then would Salazar go to their common room and share the turmoil of his heart with Godric and Rowena. If not that then he would defiantly say something that he would rather not say in front of her. He was always very over protective of her. Salazar had always been like this. He always wanted to protect her from the horrors of the world and also would not share what is bothering him just so she could have a stress free life. This was something she was really sad about as she always wanted him to share his sorrow and worries with her, just like she shared it with him; but he would never do so.

But this time she was determined to know what was worrying him and so she pretended to sleep.

Salazar slipped away from their sleeping quarters just as expected and she followed him to their common room without letting him know.

What she heard there was something she never thought she would ever hear. In her previous life she never entertained the thought that maybe the fact that Salazar, her Sal, her saviour, her knight in shining armour could die. She always wanted an explanation for his absence in the later part of her life; and when she regained her memories as Ginny, she didn't want to ask that question. She was scared that if she started questioning Harry then he might go away from her again, so she agreed to whatever he wanted her to do. She just wanted to be there for him and not bring up the past. So she stayed at Hogwarts and protected the students just as Harry wanted her to do. She followed all his orders and remained quiet, as she feared that if she became too bubbly or did something wrong then he might leave her again.

Now she wished that she had probed him, she felt her world shatter around her as she heard how he was still trying to protect all three of them as he died. How could she ever misinterpret his intention to save the residents of Hogwarts?

She clearly remembered that when he suggested that they should not bring Muggles to Hogwarts, she was outraged. She believed that every parent, be it Muggle or magical, had a right to see the place where they would be sending their children. They had a right to visit their children during the year, whenever they wish.

This view was shared by Godric and Rowena. Godric had also voiced that the selection of students should not be based on their blood status, but rather on their qualities as individuals. But now she understands that Salazar knew the ancient arts and thus by opting to teach the children who had magical parents, he was trying to retain their history. It was never about blood status, and he did have few Muggle born students that he deemed worthy to have the knowledge. How had she not seen that as Helga?

She had wanted to hug Salazar tightly and never leave him; she wanted to take away all his pain and sorrow. But she also wanted to shake him and ask him why he had not shared anything with her, why had he not shared his reasoning with her?

So when he finished his tale and seemed lost in his past, she rushed to hug him. She couldn't bear the thought of him reliving his past and also couldn't imagine the pain he must have felt after knowing that they were in danger and there was nothing he could do about it.

When she hugged him she felt him stiffen at first. And then, as he realised who she was, she felt him hug her back. Just as he did that she felt four more arms around them and just as they had done in past, all four of them consoled each other.

They spent the night in silence, hugging and consoling each other. Then, in the early hours of morning they all had come out of the room after promising to always be there for each other and try to understand each other's perspective.

After that they had all gone to their chambers to get dressed and then met outside the Great Hall, to wait for their introductions.

They had met the Headmaster there and agreed on the order of their introduction. Then they had cast the disillusionment charm on themselves and waited for the clock to strike 8.

As Dumbledore left them, each of the four was thinking about the night. Unknown to each other, they had all simultaneously resolved to not allow history to repeat itself again. Godric, Rowena and Helga also vowed to make a better effort to understand Salazar and his intentions better.

* * *

Inside the Great Hall.

Something was very, very wrong.

Severus Snape—Professor of Hogwarts, Head of Slytherin House, youngest Potions Master on record, Master Occlumens, Master Legilimens, Death Eater, Order of the Phoenix spy, and quite annoyed—had absolutely no idea what was going on. Certainly, he had been with the headmaster the night before, but he was convinced that it was either a dream or someone up there had a bad sense of humour. Of course if those four were who he thought they were, then his childhood dream would come true and the amount of knowledge he would gain was just unimaginable. But it would not do any good to keep his hopes up. They could merely be someone who looked a lot like the founders. And he, like every resident of the castle, was curious. The result of this curiosity had everyone, even the first years, and the infamous marauder trio who were known to always be late for the breakfast, present at the Great Hall. Everyone was waiting patiently (or not in some cases) for the headmaster to come and introduce the newcomers.

Severus barely had to wait at all. The school clock tower rang out eight, and the Headmaster entered the Great Hall wearing shocking orange and blue robes.

The doors were shut right after his entrance, blocking the view of everyone inside. Not that it would matter to anyone as everyone was watching the headmaster intently.

As soon as the headmaster reached the podium, he raised his arms to quiet the already soundless Hall. Though still staring at the door and wondering why it closed behind the headmaster, Severus knew from past experience that Dumbledore was beaming maddeningly at his pupils.

"As I'm sure you all remember," Dumbledore began, in a formal voice with hints of childish glee mixed in. "There was a loud explosion last night. The causes that brought about the incident are being investigated. However, as a result of the events of last night, we will have guests in Hogwarts this year. How long they will stay is undetermined as yet, but I am sure that you all will find every minute of their stay extraordinary, and will be very sad when they leave."

Mutterings broke out among the students. Dumbledore paused dramatically, and though his face remained impassive, Severus frowned deeply. Dumbledore was really presuming quite a bit in his introduction of these inexplicable outsiders. If Severus wasn't so curious as to whom Dumbledore would be willing to so vastly break routine for, he would have found 'every minute of their stay' quite ordinary, just out of spite.

"This year," Dumbledore continued now, stilling the hall. "Hogwarts will play host to four very important people. They arrived here quite unexpectedly last night, as I'm sure most of you noticed, and will be staying among us until they can find a way to return to their home. But for now, that is all quite unimportant." Dumbledore raised an arm toward the doors at the far end of the hall, and every head snapped to them. "It is my great and deepest honour to present…"

The doors swung open slowly to reveal a young woman standing in the very centre of the doorway, magic roiling around her like a storm-tossed sea. Her basic clothing was very simple; a bright canary-yellow dress. The left sleeve of the woman's dress was long and form fitting, tapering to a point above her middle finger and allowing wedding rings to show. The right sleeve went to the elbow and then fell in strips of yellow and black down to just past her hips, exposing strange black lines upon her hand and wrist. She wore a twisted rope belt about her waist, from which her wand and a long, wicked-looking obsidian blade hung. All this was covered by a black satin cloak, and the young woman's long red hair spilled down her back, a few chance strands braided with a black ribbon.

"Milady, Helga Hufflepuff!"

Severus actually heard a pin drop.

If he were not a Master Occlumens, Severus would have fallen out of his chair. More than a few of the younger year Hufflepuffs actually did. His mind completely blank, Severus could do nothing but stare at the young woman as she walked calmly up the aisle between her own table and that of Ravenclaw, her long black knife glinting evilly in the candlelight.

Everything about her, from her fierce chestnut eyes to her warrior's posture screamed that Lady Hufflepuff had clearly been misrepresented in the histories. Far from the kindly, plump and pleasing person typically depicted, the lithe, sprightly young girl who moved smoothly up the hall was anything but weak and talentless.

Severus felt a stream of warmth and comfort watching her, emotions that his training in Occlumency enabled him to realize were not his own. Severus raised an eyebrow at that. A practising Empath was a rare thing to find, especially in someone who the Wizarding world thought they knew so well. But as Severus knew even in the bare seconds he had seen Hufflepuff, the Wizarding world knew absolutely nothing.

Lady Hufflepuff had, by this time, reached the end of the hall and she came to a stop before her long House table. The small group of sixth year boys that had sat at the teacher's end of the Hufflepuff table since their first year goggled at her. She smiled lightly, sending out a wash of friendliness, and gave them a little wave.

Dumbledore once again raised his arm to the doors at the back of the hall. "I give to you our next visitor!"

This time, only one door swung open, a regal woman of impressive stature stepping nobly through. Her hair, honey-toned and curled in ringlets, framed a face with warm brown eyes that shown with wisdom and compassion and sparkled with youth. She wore a long, flowing gown, starting with royal blue at the low, swooping neckline and fading all the way to white at the hem. The sleeves, slit to the shoulder but bound together by spaced links of bronze, were full and long, almost brushing the floor, lined in bronze silk. An obviously goblin wrought, hair-thin bronze, girdle encircled her waist. An icy blue cloak, strewn with threads of bronze and matching slippers completed the ensemble. Severus knew instinctively that this woman, whose magic coursed through the room like gale-force wind, could not possibly be any other than

"Lady Rowena Ravenclaw!"

The hall burst into curious mutterings as Ravenclaw swept majestically up the hall, her cloak flowing smoothly behind her, and Severus let out a small breath, clamping down his mental shields. It wouldn't do to get his hopes up over something so obviously too good to be true, he warned himself sternly. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff could have been out on holiday and accidently sent to the future with two medieval bellhops from the local five star hotel for all he knew. Gryffindor might not even have come, which would be a blessing to be sure.

Severus shook himself from the train of thought, casting his gaze to the other teachers as a distraction. Pomona Sprout of Hufflepuff, completely ignoring Ravenclaw, had eyes only for the youthful looking Founder of her House, and Filius Flitwick was equally disregarding Hufflepuff, gazing almost rapturously at Ravenclaw. The teachers who were not Heads of any House were still in a state of shock, with the obvious exceptions of McGonagall and Dumbledore and the strange omissions of Black and Lupin. The Marauders, all of them, looked excited beyond words, though Potter still seemed a little suspicious.

Dumbledore cleared his throat as Ravenclaw came to a stop before her House table and shared a grin with Hufflepuff. "And now our next guest!"

For a third time, the doors swung open, this time for a man. And before he even stepped into the light, Severus knew instantly who this person was. There was something about the way he carried himself—not with the usual Gryffindor arrogance, but with something a little more subtle—and the way his magic blazed through the air like a wildfire that marked him as Godric.

When Gryffindor stepped into the light of the Great Hall, several things happened all at the same time. Severus flinched, squeezing his eyes shut against the veritable glow of Gryffindor's red and gold outfit; the table along the far right edge of the Hall burst into a chant of 'GOD-RIC! GRYFF-IN-DOR!'; and James Potter—ooh, would Severus nail him for this later—fell out of his chair in full view of the school and landed with a thud.

Were it not for Legilimency and stoic Slytherin pride, Severus would have asphyxiated from laughter. As it was, he allowed a grin to creep onto his face as Potter crawled back up into his chair, red-faced, staring dumbstruck at Gryffindor.

Granted, the man was impressive, though certainly not worth falling out of a chair over, especially now that the shock of the _founders_ had passed.

Once Severus adjusted to the blatant glare of Gryffindorishness, he too turned an observant eye on the man. Gryffindor was tall, easily more than six feet, with long auburn hair pulled away from his face, and a moustache that gave his slightly scarred visage a look of perpetual amusement, even when he wasn't smiling at all. From the moment the chanting of his name began, however, his face alit with a brilliant grin, his blue eyes sparkling in his glee. Gryffindor's cloak was red, of course, over eye-shocking gold robes that seemed ablaze with their own luminescence. Around his waist there was a thick belt of gold richer in colour than his robes, and attached to this, visible through an obviously-goblin-wrought sheath—for no other smiths could achieve such finery—was the famous gold and ruby Sword of Gryffindor.

Severus' mind instantly jumped into overdrive. While the more rational side of his mind counselled himself to avoid getting his hopes up lest the Founders had been mysteriously transported forward _after_ the split, the rest of him was positively dying for Dumbledore to introduce the last visitor. The chance to meet, to speak with, to _work _with Salazar Slytherin—_the_ Salazar Slytherin—was far too fantastic to be real, and yet it simply _had_ to be.

Gryffindor, reaching the end of the hall, reached out and pulled Ravenclaw into a full passionate kiss. The Gryffindors, particularly Longbottom, Finnigan and Thomas, cheered even harder. When they broke away, Ravenclaw's face turned a beautiful rose tone and Gryffindor winked roguishly at his students.

"As there is no need to introduce Lord Gryffindor," cried Dumbledore above the wild cheers of the overenthusiastic Lions. "I give you, last but certainly not least, Lady Hufflepuff's husband!"

The chanting and cheering cut off abruptly, and a few upper year Slytherins jumped to their feet in outrage. All around the hall, people were frowning, and muttering angrily under their breaths. While not very popular, Slytherin _was_ a founder and if his absence meant the loss of the full set, Hogwarts would not be happy. Severus wasn't paying attention. He fumed, raged, seethed, and boiled with fury. How could the Wizarding world's most impossible dream have come true and left Slytherin behind in the past? Goody-two-shoes Gryffindor, and his conniving cohorts, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw simply couldn't be allowed to influence the Wizarding world without Slytherin there to balance them out. It wasn't right! Severus glowered at the hall and particularly the tall oak doors as if he could make Slytherin appear behind them.

Dumbledore, for some odd reason, was grinning.

The tall oaken doors banged open with a wave of magic that ruffled the hair of those sitting closest to the entry way, revealing a single figure completely silhouetted by the torchlight of the passage behind him. An aura with force such as Severus had never felt slammed into him, pushing him back into his seat. Severus stared. This man, Hufflepuff's husband, was the most powerful wizard Severus had ever seen, and yet not a single drop of his magic seeped into the air around him. All his strength was carefully concealed by Occlumency.

Severus reached out with Legilimency to brush by the man's shields, and instantly probed closer. Most people's natural shields were like tiny wooden garden spikes, just enough to keep thoughts from spilling out of their minds. Dumbledore's and Voldemort's minds were protected by a barbed wire fence surrounded by chimeras of Legilimency. Severus had heard his shield compared to a muggle high-voltage fence with Hungarian Horntails on the perimeter, ready to attack the shields of another at a moment's notice. But this man's mind was Hogwarts, encircled by a thousand full grown Basilisks.

Voldemort suddenly looked like an open encyclopaedia.

Severus hadn't recovered from the shock of the man's strength when he stepped into the light of the great hall and everything was blown from Severus' mind.

Hufflepuff's husband was slightly shorter than Gryffindor with longish black hair that brushed against his glimmering emerald eyes. The man was swathed from head to foot in deep forest green, his cloak glimmering with a thousand strands of silver twisting and turning on the fabric. The naked blade of a short silver sword gleamed on his hip, and a pure white snake lay lazily draped over his shoulders.

Slytherin. Severus had never been surer of anything in his whole life.

Gasps swept the hall like a sudden breeze. The snake hung around Slytherin's shoulders hissed loudly through the silence, and Slytherin laughed, low and throaty. The sound echoed, and the hairs on the back of Severus' neck stood up.

Salazar quietly conversed with his snake in Parseltongue, and Severus let out a low breath of amazement. When Voldemort spoke Parseltongue, it was all hisses and spits and wheezing. But Slytherin, the Serpent Lord himself, made the language of the snakes sound beautiful, like a song or a gust of wind. Severus had never heard Parseltongue spoken that way.

The snake hissed something vehemently, jerking its head away from Slytherin's as they glided down the hall, and causing more than a few Hufflepuffs to edge away in fear.

By this time, Slytherin had reached the end of the walk between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, and, stepping close to Hufflepuff, he bowed low over her hand, pressing a kiss to the wedding ring glimmering on her finger. Another zephyr of gasps and whispers blew through the hall.

The four newcomers moved together in the centre of the room.

"Witches and wizards," Dumbledore announced from behind them, arms raised. "Boys and girls. Allow me to give you the Founders of Hogwarts!"

And the crowd went wild.

* * *

**AN:** This time I am not giving any previews so do let me know what you think the next chapter will contain. You never know, maybe you will guess it right?! ;)


	11. Chapter 11: Reactions and Q&A session

**Previously**

"Witches and wizards," Dumbledore announced from behind them, arms raised. "Boys and girls. Allow me to give you the Founders of Hogwarts!"

And the crowd went wild.

* * *

**Chapter eleven: Reactions and Q&A Session**

Severus Snape had just spent three minutes of his life pinching his arms, slapping his knees, stomping on his own toes, rubbing his eyes and even trying to blow bubbles out of his ears whilst holding his nose. Such behaviour was so completely out of character that even Severus himself was rather appalled at such undignified deportment, but he had decided that this occasion was well worth seriously jeopardizing his Slytherin pride over. But now, after repeatedly failed attempts to remove himself from the fantastic dreamscape he seemed to have stumbled into, Severus finally let himself believe what was right in front of him.

The Founders of Hogwarts were here.

The present day students of Hogwarts had clearly accepted the Founders' arrival with far less apprehension and suspicion than their professors. They were still wildly cheering and applauding as they had been the entire time.

Their professors, on the other hand, were trying to convince themselves that they were not delirious, under the influence of one of the various hallucinogenic curses, or staring avidly into the Mirror of Erised. The founders themselves were not helping calm the students in the slightest, as they seemed content to let everyone come out of their shocks on their own.

Godric was waving enthusiastically towards the Gryffindor table with a big grin on his face and bowing from time to time. Rowena and Helga were watching the crowd with slight grins on their faces, clearly enjoying the fact the excitement of the students. Slytherin on the other hand, took the applause without grandstanding, observing the crowd with a neutral look on his face. To the onlooker he would seem bored of the situation.

Dumbledore, who had been celebrating right along with his students, spread his arms in a gesture for quiet. The Founders somehow knew it even with their backs turned, and instantly stopped their actions. A few of the students groaned at this, but quieted as soon as they understood the reason.

"May I remind you that this is a feast!" said Dumbledore, smiling out at the school. Several students gave sheepish laughs. ""Let us eat and perhaps our visitors would consent to answer a few questions?"

Dumbledore's slight question was directed with raised eyebrows at Gryffindor, who nodded.

Food appeared into place on the tables and the students fell to without a single spoken word, desperate to finish their meals as quickly as possible to hear from the Founders (Severus for his part found this extraordinarily amusing). The Founders moved off to the sides, to get seated and start their meal.

Severus was concentrating on his meal whilst mulling over how to approach his idol, Salazar Slytherin. Just then a soft voice startled him

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"

Severus moved his neck so fast that he could swear he heard something click, but that was not what shocked him, it was the fact that the person of his thoughts was standing in front of him and his idol had started a conversation with him.

In his shock all he could do was shake his head to answer the question directed to him.

* * *

Salazar took one glance at the head table and found that the Headmaster had very cleverly placed empty seats next to the four heads of houses. Thus he made his way to get seated next to Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin house.

However, as he was making his way to his seat he noticed that Severus seemed to be concentrating on his food whilst being deep in his thoughts. So Salazar decided to let his inner marauder out and standing behind Severus he softly raised a seemingly polite question.

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"

He instantly got the desired reaction when the esteemed Potions master moved his neck so quickly to look at him that Salazar could hear the neck click. After that he enjoyed watching different emotions of shock, incredulity, disbelief, awe and wonder play on Severus' face. He mentally congratulated himself for being one of the few people who could claim to have seen the esteemed potions master displaying emotions.

However, when Severus did not seem to answer his question for a long time he allowed himself to smile a little and raised one eyebrow. That seemed to have gotten through to Severus somewhat, as he hastily shook his head.

So he gracefully slipped into his seat which was right next to Helga and started with his meal.

A few moments later Severus held out a hand. "Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House."

Salazar stared at the offered hand for a few seconds before grasping it. Severus for some reason was surprised at how warm Slytherin's hand was. Slytherin twitched one corner of his mouth. "Salazar Slytherin," he said, "Head of Slytherin House."

Severus gave a small laugh and released Slytherin's hand. Slytherin had a nice sense of humour, Severus decided.

Something hissed suddenly in Severus's ear, and Severus flinched. The snake around Slytherin's neck had wound itself up and over the back of Severus's chair, and Severus could feel the tips of its forked tongue flickering against his skin. Slytherin let out a long sustained hiss, and it took Severus a while to realize that he was laughing.

"No fear of Serpa," said Slytherin softly. "He has taken liking of you." Slytherin held out an arm, and the snake moved slowly across Severus' shoulders, winding slowly up Slytherin's arm until it was once again wrapped tightly around his body.

"He is beautiful," said Severus, and indeed, the snake was. Its long body was pure white and iridescent, with black eyes that reflected all the light that hit them.

"Thank you, not many would say that after looking at him. I am glad to know that the current Head of my House is not one of them." Salazar inclined his head to emphasis his words and continued with his meal.

The rest of the meal passed in silence. Soon the feast was over and everyone was eager to start the questions. So the Founders exchanged a look and stood as one to take the middle stage.

Godric and Salazar took a step further and addressed the crowd.

"First of all I would like to thank Headmaster Dumbledore for understanding our situation and making us feel welcome in a place that is unknown to us. I would also like to thank all of you for such a nice welcome. I know that I am speaking for all of us when I say that, it makes us feel very proud and happy to see that our school has gained such a good reputation and place in the Wizarding World.

This fact has assured us that our hard work and efforts have come to fruition. This is how we wanted our school to be and it is truly gratifying to know that our dream has come to reality."

Salazar paused for a while. Everyone was listening to what Salazar Slytherin had to say with apt attention. It was clear to all the teachers that Salazar was the speaker of the group and everyone in the quadrant listened to him. This was very surprising for everyone as they always thought that Gryffindor was the leader.

"Now I realise that all of you would want to ask us questions, but I also know that some of you will not know where to start. To add to this, the classes will also start in some time. So for this reason I suppose that for now we will take one question from each house. Be assured that we will answer all your questions during the year, if we are unable to answer them now. So feel free to approach any of us during the year with any question that you might have." Salazar began the speech and then looked at Godric

"I agree with Sal here, when we started this school all four of us wanted to eventually expand the school and have students from all over the British Isles. It is very reassuring to see that our wishes are not only fulfilled but Hogwarts has exceeded our imaginations. I mean, just look at the number of students in the Slytherin House. Sal never, and I mean never ever had that many students!"

The last statement was met with a mixture of reactions. Several of older Slytherin students almost stood up in protest whilst Gryffindor students started snickering, and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students also had smiles. On the teacher's table, Severus was enraged at the nerve of Gryffindor and was about to voice his opinion. Other teachers were all shocked at the statement.

However, before anyone could voice their opinions, Salazar started chuckling

"That's true. It seems that the student population has exploded."

After saying that, he exchanged a look with Godric and both of them started laughing at the joke like old friends.

This scene was met with stunned silence from the Hogwarts population. Everyone who was shocked at Gryffindor's statement were even more shocked at Slytherin's reply and only had one question in their mind 'that was supposed to be a joke?' Others who were laughing earlier were shocked to see Salazar Slytherin acting so … so human.

In the end everyone had one thought on their mind, this year is certainly going to be interesting.

After a few moments of chuckling, Salazar and Godric sobered up, and Godric again started to speak in a serious voice

"Well jokes apart, it really is nice to see that our school is a home to so many students from all over the Isles. Now as Sal was saying earlier, we will take one question from each house and maximum of three questions from the teachers, for today. If you do not have the opportunity to ask your question then feel free to approach any of us during the school year. So shall we start with my house first? Who would like to ask first? Please, raise your hand."

Several hands flew in the air, so Godric chose a hand of a girl who had black hair and looked very reluctant to raise her hand

When he called her on and asked her name she seemed very shy and replied

"My name is Rose Longbottom, Lord Gryffindor, I am a fourth year student. I have heard a lot of things about the Founders and was curious to know what subjects did each of you teach."

The founders were surprised to hear her last name but composed themselves and smiled encouragingly at her before Godric started to answer.

"Well an excellent question Miss Longbottom. We do not only teach one subject but a variety of them. To the younger students, I teach hand to hand combat, basics of weapon wielding, and transfiguration. Then to the older students of the school and those who wish to get masteries, I give Animagus training and weapon crafting. Then, along with Salazar, I also teach duelling and Muggle fighting tactics, including swordsmanship and other weapon wielding tactics.

Godric paused to let the information sink in. He could see a lot of students looking interested at the mention of his subjects.

"My wife, Lady Ravenclaw, teaches Arithmancy, History, Charms and Ancient Runes to students of all ages. Then she also teaches Warding, Spell crafting and Charms to those who wish to take masteries. "

Rowena inclined her head to register here agreement. Salazar took over from here and continued to describe his and Helga's subjects.

"My wife, Lady Hufflepuff, teaches Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology to everyone. In addition, she also teaches Divination to the gifted students, and, along with me, provides healing courses for those who wish to do their masteries. Furthermore, she helps Lady Ravenclaw to teach the spell crafting and Charms classes."

Everyone was listening very intently to the explanation and was surprised to realise that the course structure had changed so much over the years. They always thought that Hogwarts had retained the traditional subjects and customs from the time of the Founders. However, as Salazar paused to let the information sink, everyone (especially the Slytherins) was sitting on the edge of their seats as ancient founder spoke about the subjects that he taught.

"I teach potions to everyone. For the older students, I also teach Occlumency, Legilimency, defensive magic, duelling magical spells and their tactics. Furthermore, as you already know, I teach duelling and muggle fighting tactics, including swordsmanship and other weapon wielding tactics; and along with Lady Hufflepuff I teach Healing. Now as you know that each of us has their own area of expertise that we share with the older students who wish to take their studies to a master level. I teach Ancient Arts and ancestral magic to the students wishing to take mastery in the subject."

Salazar paused and scanned the students and teachers. After a few moments, he addressed the crowd again.

"Can we have the next question please, this time from the Ravenclaw House?"

This caused quite a stir in the Hall. Everyone was surprised that Salazar had not called out for his own house, but had called out for the Ravenclaw house. They had expected him to favour his own house.

Nonetheless, many hands were raised and Salazar selected a brown haired boy this time.

"My name is Zac Smith, sir, I will be starting my fifth year. My question is, how long ago did you Found Hogwarts, sir, and how many students have you had?"

Salazar raised eyebrow at the boy in amusement. However, he allowed Rowena to answer the question this time around.

"Well, Mr Smith, that was two questions but I will answer nonetheless. Before we landed in this timeline, we had founded Hogwarts two years ago. To start with we had five students in total. Last year, the number was doubled and we had ten students. This year we were expecting at least fifteen students." Rowena replied with a kind smile on her face.

"Can we have the next question, from the Hufflepuff house this time?"

A few hands were raised from the Hufflepuff table, and Rowena indicated for a black haired boy.

"My name is Ted Boot, I wanted to ask Lady Hufflepuff how her last name can be Hufflepuff if she is the sister of Lord Gryffindor and the wife of Lord Slytherin"

Helga smiled at the nervous looking boy, and replied to him

"Well that is because, my mother belonged to a matriarchal family. What it means is that any daughter born to me will not carry Sal's last name but she will carry the name of Hufflepuff. However, if I give birth to a baby boy then he will carry the Slytherin name. Similarly, Godric carried my father's last name – Gryffindor while I carried my mother's last name – Hufflepuff. Does that answer your question my dear?"

Ted smiled at Helga and nodded his head in understanding. Helga nodded at him one last time before directing her next question to the Slytherin house.

"Now can we have the next question from the Slytherin house this time?"

Quite a few hands were raised in the air, and Helga chose a girl this time with curly black hair.

"My name is Astoria Greengrass, I was wondering how old you all are."

The founders all exchanged a look between them before nodding towards Salazar. Turning back to Astoria, Salazar replied to her question.

"Ah, well Rowena here is the oldest amongst all of us. She is, at this moment, eighteen years old"

All around the hall there was a chorus of gasps. Albus too raised an eyebrow incredulously. If Ravenclaw was eighteen now, than that would have put her at barely sixteen when the school opened! And to already have Mastered an Apprentice at that age! Salazar seemed to understand that his words were shocking, and waited patiently for the mutterings to subside. They soon did, and he smiled.

"My best friend Godric – " heads jerked over from both the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables at hearing the words 'Godric', 'Best Friend' and 'My' spoken in same sentence – "and I were born but weeks apart, we are seventeen years old"

Hogwarts was really getting more than its share of shocks today, thought Albus, staring around the hall. With this revelation, Albus had decided to let go of any and all perceptions that he held of the Founders and just accept everything they said as true. Nearly everyone else in the hall found this much more difficult. They gasped and gaped and counted on their fingers and whispered things like 'Ravenclaw's the oldest!' and 'They were our age when they founded this place!' Albus just sat back and let his mind do what it would with the information. He did, however, take the time to glance over and see Slytherin share an amused smirk with Gryffindor.

"My wife Helga—" said Salazar loudly, looking back over the hall, and reclaiming all attention. "- was born but a year after us."

After pausing a few moment, Salazar continued.

"Now I am sure that everyone will be eager to start the first classes of the new term, so we will finish this session here and head for our activities. I and my fellows will be attending the classes with the respective heads of our houses. So we will see each other regularly during the upcoming year. Once again I would like to assure the rest of you that should you have any questions that you would like to ask us, please feel free to approach us anytime. Headmaster?"

Salazar nodded towards Albus, indicating that he should take over from here. Understanding the indication given by Slytherin, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the audience.

"Well that ends our most enlightening but short question and answer session. I am sure you all will be looking forward to learning few things from our guests this year. Now, I request the Heads of Houses to kindly distribute the timetables to the students. Other teachers, if you could please proceed to your classes. I also request our guests to kindly stay behind and wait for the Head of Houses."

Everyone who was addressed by the Headmaster nodded their heads in acceptance and followed the instructions. Dumbledore then gave a nod towards the Founders and left the Great Hall, along with other teachers leaving the students in the capable hands of the Heads of Houses and the Founders.

* * *

No one noticed a few owls flying from different house tables carrying the news of the arrival of the Founders to their parents and a few to the Ministry of Magic.

* * *

**AN:** So that was the conclusion of the Founder's Introduction. Hope you all liked it. I am looking forward to hearing you opinions about it.

To all the wonderful people who took time out to review the previous chapters - THANK YOU SO MUCH. It really means a lot to me and encourages me to write more.


	12. Chapter 12: The Chamber of Secrets

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to Mrs Rowling.

Now that the formalities are out of the way. Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. Enjoy reading :)

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: The Chamber of Secrets**

Everyone was quick to start their daily schedule. Dumbledore left the Great Hall to start his day as well. He was followed by most of the teachers, leaving the students in the capable hands of the Heads of Houses and the Founders.

As the Heads of Houses started distributing the timetables, students started to disappear to their classes; in the end, only the Heads of Houses and the Founders were left in the Great Hall. Soon even that changed and Godric, Rowena and Helga left with Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout respectively; leaving Salazar alone with Professor Snape.

"So Professor, what subject do you teach?" Salazar initiated the conversation

"I teach potions to all years; however surprisingly I do not have any classes until after tea time today. So would you like to accompany me to the dungeons or would you prefer to do something else." Severus replied politely, wishing that Salazar would accompany him to the dungeon so that he could ask him as many questions as he wants.

However, Salazar had some other plans. He was planning on having a look at his chambers, and possibly brew some new potions.

"Thank you for you offer Professor, however, I must apologise to you as I would not be able to take you up on your offer this time. You see, last night I did not check the condition of my Chambers and as I had forbidden the house elves to clean the area I doubt that it would have stayed well after these many years." He paused for a moment, studying the other man. "Would you like to accompany me?"

Delight overcame Severus' initial feelings of disappointment when Salazar Slytherin invited him to visit the famous Chambers of Secret. He was about to reply positively when they were interrupted by Madam Pomfrey's assistant.

"Professor Snape, thank goodness you are still here. There has been an incident, apparently a few students had gotten into a duel and are now in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey is attending to them but she needs the Burn Healing Salve, the standard nutrient potions, some pepper up potion and some dreamless sleep potion."

"It seems I must refuse your offer this time, I must tend to the students and provide the required potions for them. Perhaps I can join you at a later date?" Severus asked hopefully.

"Students must always come first for the teachers," the founder replied wisely. "We can chat later but please continue with your duties." Salazar nodded at the assistant and left the Great Hall.

* * *

After leaving the Great Hall, Salazar immediately made his way towards the second floor. Godric had informed him of his reasoning behind this brilliant idea of his to build a bathroom (a girls bathroom!) right on the entrance to Salazar's chambers. The reason he gave was that although they could not answer everyone's questions about Salazar being evil, they did not want anyone to find Salazar's chambers. Salazar felt touched by their gesture to protect his chambers even though they did not know whether or not they could trust him.

As he reached the second floor, he looked around to see if anyone was around, when he was sure that no one was looking, he entered the abandoned bathroom. He found that Myrtle was nowhere to be found (he was thankful for that). So he quickly opened the entrance and asked for the moving staircase and entered his chambers after closing the entrance behind him.

* * *

Just as he had expected, the entrance hall was damp and dark. Apparently the charm to keep the dampness out of the Chambers had worn off. That was not a surprise; he had expected that after these many years of neglect. He decided to start by going into the main hall and recharging the charm. That would not take long and it would ensure that the next job would be easier.

However as he went towards the main hall of his chambers, he started having a feeling that something bad was going to happen today. Hence he decided that after recharging the charms and doing the basic cleaning, the first potion he would brew would be to enhance his seer ability; he might not be a seer like Helga and his mother but he did inherit some of the gift and by mixing his blood in this potion he would be able to see the event clearly. He would usually get some nagging feeling and after taking the potion he would be able to see the event in the bowl.

As he passed the dark and damp tunnels to his Main Hall, he lit the torches interspersed on the walls. He also found a few basilisk skins of different lengths. He inspected each of them and was happy to find that all of them were useable for potions. He added this to his to do list and walked ahead.

As he reached the end of the tunnel, he was happy to see that the entrance to his main chambers was not too damp nor did it have any slime on it. Apparently not all of his spell work had worn off with time.

He looked into the eyes of the one of the two entwined serpents that were carved on the entrance wall, they were glinting emeralds (he always did love that colour). After reaching near the wall he spread his right palm and pressed it on a stone near the entrance; and as he did that the serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight.

As he entered the main hall, he found himself standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

He frowned at this. He had expected this as he had visited this area in his own universe as Harry, but now he remembered the way this area was supposed to look and was not happy at the eerie feeling that it gave. This hall was supposed to have a welcoming feeling and the ceiling was not supposed to be lost in darkness, in fact it was supposed to depict the weather outside. This room was loved by all the founders and was a place where all four founders used to practice their elemental powers.

Salazar took a deep breath and took out his Ash wand and walked to the centre of the Hall. He raised both his hands and directed them towards the ceiling. After that he closed his eyes and started chanting in Parseltongue. He always found that the spells casted with Parseltongue had more power and tended to last longer than if they were casted in any other languages. Rowena was very miffed about this when she found out and this was what motivated her to create spells using Latin and ancient Greek that lasted a long time.

After about an hour, he was satisfied with the spell work. He conjured a comfortable couch and sat on it to rest for a while. A quick Tempus spell showed that it was already lunch time. He didn't want to go to the Great Hall so he summoned a house elf and asked for some pumpkin juice and a couple of sandwiches, in the chamber itself. The elf was as always happy to serve and popped in with the requested food. After thanking the elf (the elf squeaked excitedly and popped out after starting to clap in joy at being thanked by the notorious wizard; all Salazar could do was smile and shake his head at the antics of the elf.) and having his food; Salazar wandered into some of the other rooms.

These rooms were charmed to only appear only if Salazar or any of the other founders laid their hand on the designated stone whilst entering the main hall. If someone used a password the doors to the main hall will open but that person will not be able to see the other rooms in the Chamber. This feature was added as an extra security to ensure that no unwanted Parselmouth could access Salazar's belongings even if he had managed to enter his chambers.

Salazar decided to check out his medical ward first. They had set up a mini infirmary in his chambers. This was set up to attend to any wizard or witch who was seriously injured in the war. There was a shortcut from this chamber which opened at the edge of Hogsmeade village. In the ancient times, that ground was usually used to fight off any battles around Hogwarts was the battleground of Hogwarts and thus anyone seriously injured or anyone who needed to be healed by ancient magic or blood magic would be brought here by the Founders.

As he entered the infirmary, he found that the dampness was gone but the beds were in bad shape and the odour was not fully gone. So he started by casting the spells to dispel the odour, replacing it with the scent of freesia and jasmine. After that, he banished the beds and the side tables, and then went on to vanish the dust and slime that had gathered in the room over the years.

Finished with that, he summoned a house elf to sanitize the room, specifically ordering it to stay in the infirmary and return to the kitchens after it was done.

Salazar then set off to inspect his potions lab and the store. This was accessed from a password protected portrait of his aunt who taught him a lot about potions and magical rituals from a very early age in the infirmary.

The portrait was happy to see Salazar after such a long time. Before it swung open, it warned him that the lab was in a bit of a mess. Entering the lab, Salazar couldn't help but think that the portrait had made a massive understatement.

The lab smelled awful. The whole room was covered in slime, some of the potions had leaked from their vials and mixed with other potions. Unfortunately the result was some sort of an explosion. He remembered that he was trying to make some potions which could be used in battle but he never had a chance to show them to the other founders as he had completed the potion on the day of their argument that had led to him leaving the castle for the last time.

He sighed at the memory and wished for the umpteenth time that he could have shown the potion to the others. But they were not ready to listen to him at all. In fact, Godric had started shouting at him the moment he had mentioned using potions against the Muggles in battle, starting off the row.

He shook himself out of his memories and started cleaning the lab. This took a little more than an hour and after banishing more than half of his things, he had managed to salvage some of his better quality cauldrons, some vials, and other basic equipments. It was not much, but luckily all the basic equipments required for brewing the intuition potion were available.

After this he checked the storage area. This area was heavily warded and it also had a permanent static charm on it; thus it had escaped any damage including the damp smell. This was a relief to Salazar as it would mean that all the rare ingredients he had collected and every potion that he had brewed in his past life could still be used. He had brewed some very rare dark potions that can be used for ritualistic healing to counter the effects of dark curses that otherwise could not be cured.

Satisfied that all the potions and salves were unspoiled, Salazar collected the required ingredients for the Seer Ability Enhancing Potion and moved back to the lab and started brewing it. The potion would only take about fifteen minutes to mix the ingredients and then a further half an hour to be ready to use.

Once the potion reached the stage where it needed to be left for a while, Salazar decided to check on the progress of the sanitisation of the infirmary. He was happy to see that the elf had completed his job and the infirmary was ready to be used. He would have to buy some new furniture but for now he conjured a few beds and other furniture. He also conjured a stone bed, used for the ritualistic healing, and some chairs and couches.

After all this, he relaxed on the couches for a while and then checked the time. The potion was almost done, so he went back to the lab and prepared to use the potion. After the potion was ready, he took some in a smaller bowl and made a small cut on his finger by a ritualistic knife. He let few drops of his blood fall into the potion and after the required amount of blood was mixed in the potion the cut healed itself.

The potion immediately turned transparent after the blood was mixed and Salazar could see the view of Hogsmeade village. The place was just a few feet away from the secret entrance to his infirmary, just outside of Hogshead pub. There were about twelve Death Eaters surrounding a group of six people. Salazar could identify all of the Death Eaters and he realised that they were all best duellers Voldemort had in his ranks. There was no way he would be able to out duel them without harming the six non-combatants. So he focused on the position of the victims and the time. He quickly realised that the victims were none other than the Marauders with Lily and Mr and Mrs Weasley. He could see that all other villagers were either running around or were lying on the ground. None of the victims had their wands and Sirius, James, Remus and the Weasleys had some gashes and bruises on their bodies and faces. It didn't seem too serious but Salazar knew that when people like Bellatrix were around, it would not take long before things took a turn for the worse. He looked around for the wands of the victims and found that they were held by Bellatrix in her pocket.

After assessing the situation he checked the time, but quickly realised that this event was happening at the same time. A plan started to form in his head as he left to help the Marauders, Lily and the Weasleys. He did not have time to contact the others and thus decided to deal with the situation himself.

* * *

**AN**: So here is the next chapter... I will be updating two more chapters very soon (probably today) so look out for them and do not forget to give me your reviews.


	13. Chapter 13: The Attack

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to Mrs Rowling.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen: The Attack**

As Salazar exited the secret passage way leading to the edge of Hogsmeade he cast a disillusionment charm on himself. Reassessing the situation, he saw at least fifteen Death Eaters surrounding his parents, Sirius, Remus, and the Weasleys. Just as he had seen in the bowl, they were all unarmed and held at wand-point by the Death Eaters who were laughing at their pain. Salazar took a moment to look for injuries in case anyone needed urgent medical attention.

Sirius and Mr Weasley seemed worst off.

Sirius had a big cut on his right arm, which was profusely bleeding and his leg was bleeding as well. He had several small injuries on his face and other parts of his body.

Mr Weasley had a big gash on his chest and several small injuries on his arms. However he seemed to be losing a lot of blood and would need a blood replenishing potion soon. But it seemed that he would be ok for a few more minutes.

His father was on the ground, evidently under the effects of a full body-bind, his legs bleeding. Salazar could see the man's eyes were wide open in panic as he watched his attackers.

Remus had several small bruises on his hands, legs and face but nothing serious. A Death Eater held a silver knife near his throat, preventing the werewolf from moving.

Mrs Weasley was not harmed much as far as he could see but she was scared and looked as though she would need a calming draught soon. She also seemed thinner than his world, but that could be due to the loss of her two youngest children.

Lily was also relatively unharmed with a few bruises on her face but Bellatrix was currently focusing on her. It seemed that Bellatrix was content to just torment her with words.

Salazar moved to position himself. However before he could cast any spell, Bellatrix raised her wand, the incantation of the Killing curse on her lips. However, Sirius who was near Lily, was quicker, kicking Bellatrix's hand out of the way before the Death Eater could fire the deadly curse.

The Death Eaters stopped laughing at this point.

There was a tense silence broken by Antonin Dolohov, who pointed his wand at Sirius and shouted "adolebit penitus sicco!"

To Salazar it seemed as if he was losing his Godfather again in this world and his fury reached his peak.

The Death Eaters were caught completely unawares by the sudden explosion of borderline dark spells sent their way by an angry Salazar Slytherin.

Lucius, the two Lestranges, and Dolohov were taken out first. With a powerful banishing charm, Salazar sent them flying several feet into a copse of trees as he simultaneously summoned the stolen wands from Bellatrix and sent a stasis charm at Sirius to halt the effects of the curse.

Meanwhile, the other Death Eaters had regained their wits. Seeing various curses headed his way, Salazar quickly Disapparated silently. Appearing behind them, he silently sent hexes, curses and jinxes at Voldemort's men, catching a few of them by surprise. Not giving his enemies another chance to regroup, Salazar Apparated to another spot, keeping the Death Eaters on the defensive as he appeared and disappeared randomly, giving the impression that there was more than one person casting spells.

In short order, the remaining Death Eaters were nursing numerous burns and cuts while several of them had broken bones.

Assuming that they were outnumbered, the beleaguered group of attackers called for a retreat. Those that were able grabbed their fallen comrades as they Disapparated.

* * *

Lily couldn't believe that the Founders had arrived in this time. Although she was not against any founder as a school girl, she despised anyone regularly using dark arts after losing her son. Hence she was not very happy at the arrival of the notorious Salazar Slytherin. However she chose to ignore him and decided that as long as he did not pose any threat to her family and students she would not judge him.

After breakfast, she could not help but notice how Slytherin answered most of the questions and how he seemed to be the leader of the founders. It irked her a little to see that the famous witches and wizards of all times were allowing a dark wizard to lead them. But, she told herself that they were still friends and it seems that the other three founders had not yet realised the true evil nature of the notorious fourth founder.

Once the question and answer session finished, she quickly followed the Headmaster out of the Great Hall, with her husband and two best friends. The four of them went to her and her husband's quarters where they sat around the fire absorbing recent events. They had their lunch there and were thankful to Professor McGonagall for excusing them from any classes that day.

When it was almost tea time, they all left the castle quietly to meet the Weasleys at the Hogshead, completely forgetting to inform anyone in the castle of where they were going.

Having lost two of her youngest children to the war, the overprotective Weasley matriarch had predictably panicked upon hearing that Salazar Slytherin was residing in Hogwarts. However, with the help of the Potters and their friends, her calmer husband managed to assuage her fears somewhat.

It was then that they heard a commotion outside. Concerned, the six drew their wands and cautiously headed out.

Outside the Hogshead they saw at least fifteen Death Eaters all from Voldemort's inner circle.

When Molly saw Antonin Dolohov and Bellatrix Lestrange in the group, she started to lose her nerve and Lily had to stay with her to protect her from harm. The four men in the group went out to save the villagers.

After few minutes someone entered the pub and Lily felt relief wash over her, as she thought that it was either one of the Marauders or Arthur for them. But as she came out of hiding with Molly, she was faced with the Death Eaters.

The Death Eaters quickly disarmed the women and dragged them out where they found, James under a full body bind curse. Sirius and Arthur were standing next to the downed man, both sporting several injuries with open bleeding wounds. Remus was the farthest one and he was held by two Death Eaters and had a silver knife at his throat.

The Death Eaters threw Lily and Molly between Sirius and James.

"So we finally have the full group now" Bellatrix Lestrange cackled triumphantly from the middle of the Death Eaters.

"Aww did the wig boys here think that the tiny winy babies were not old enough to fight? Or were they too scared of the big bad Death Eaters who killed their precious little babies" Bellatrix continued to taunt them.

Lily could see that Molly was on the verge of tears and she knew the reason behind it. Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers were the ones to kill young Ronald and Ginerva along with Molly's brothers Fabian and Gideon.

However, Lily refused to be intimidated by Bellatrix and glared at her for taunting them like that.

"Ohhh mummy save me the big red headed woman is scaring me …" Bellatrix mocked her before laughing loudly along with the other Death Eaters. One of the Death Eaters backhanded her, knocking her down. Holding a hand up, Lily could feel blood oozing from her lips as her cheek throbbed. The Death Eaters laughed more at her pain, and Bellatrix came closer to her.

"What are you going to do huh? Going to hurt me? Do you want to kill me?" Bellatrix continued in her baby voice in midst of the laughter

"You know it's a pity that you all don't have any more kids, it would have been so much fun to kill them, maybe this time we would torture them first and let you hear their screams before killing them in front of your eyes. Do you think you would be able to do anything to us if we did that? Huh?" Bellatrix asked in a crazy voice abandoning her mocking baby voice.

"You wouldn't know anything about loving your own child Bellatrix, now would you? But I suppose that you are not even worth calling yourself a human, let alone being a mother of an innocent child." Lily snarled at Bellatrix defiantly.

Bellatrix's face twisted into an ugly look. Snarling, the mad witch raised her wand, the killing curse on her lips. Just when Lily thought it was over, Sirius kicked the Death Eater's wand away.

Lily did not even get a moment to realise what happened before Sirius was felled by a nasty curse sent by Antonin Dolohov in retaliation.

Lily's scream was stuck in her throat as she saw Sirius fall on the ground. But before she could come out of her shock or do something, help came.

It seemed as though the teachers of Hogwarts had come to their rescue. She looked around to see who had come but could not see anyone and the spells seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Lily watched with glee as Lucius, Dolohov and the Lestranges were blasted off their feet. She felt vindictive joy upon seeing the other Death Eaters being mercilessly battered by spells that seemed to come from everywhere. Within a few moments all Death Eaters had fled the scene to her relief.

As the last of Death Eaters Disapparated, she looked around to see Salazar Slytherin shimmering into view, no doubt lifting the disillusionment charm he had placed on himself. A known Dark Slytherin had saved them from the Death Eaters? That too Salazar Slytherin himself? That didn't make sense, how can the notoriously dark wizard who did not even spare a single thought before burning down an entire village full of people save them from other dark wizards?

She looked around to see if the other founders were there as well. It would make sense for Slytherin to save them whilst the other founders were also present, as then he would have to put on a mask of being a light wizard.

But no one else seemed to appear around them. When she looked back to find Slytherin, she saw him lifting the full body bind on James and handing them their wands back. After that Slytherin moved to Arthur and had a look at the gash on his chest and put a mild stasis charm on him and conjured stretcher for him and gently laid him on that next to the other conjured stretcher he had placed Sirius on. Lily's insides felt numb as she looked at the pale visage of her friend as Slytherin levitated both the men and started moving towards the school. She strongly doubted that there was anything that could be done for Sirius.

James placed an arm around her and started following the founder, hobbling along despite his wounded legs. He was shortly joined by a dazed Molly, who was being helped along by Remus.

* * *

As they followed Slytherin, Remus noticed that Slytherin created three Patronuses that looked like a cross between a dragon and a phoenix and sent them to towards the castle before going towards path that led to the forbidden forest.

He was about to question Slytherin on this route when Slytherin opened a passage way and was about to go in.

"Where does this passageway go?" Remus asked half suspicious and half curious. James and Lily were in shock and were holding onto each other, and Molly was also very anxious about Arthur's condition. Thus it seemed that he was the only one who had to keep his head in this situation. Even Remus was very worried for Sirius as there was no known spell or potion that can cure the curse cast on Sirius but Remus kept his emotions in check in order to protect the remaining of his friends.

Remus braced himself, expecting the founder to attack him, when he turned to look at Remus. But what Slytherin did shocked Remus to no end. Salazar turned towards Remus before giving him a small smile

"This tunnel is a short cut to the infirmary." The founder said not unkindly. "You all need healing and the other teachers are on their way."

Saying so, Salazar continued to walk into the passage with Sirius and Arthur floating behind him. With a feeling of trepidation, Remus entered the passage after James Lily and Molly.

The passage was wide enough for four to five people to walk side by side. As Remus walked in, the door behind him slid back into its place, locking the occupants in the passage. The passage was long and well lit. Whilst walking through it, Remus wondered how the Marauders had never found this passage into the castle. If Slytherin was right, and this path did lead to the hospital wing, then it would be invaluable in the event they had to shift the wounded from Hogsmeade, should Voldemort attack the village.

Remus was surprised when they reached the end of the tunnel. This was not the Hogwarts hospital wing! But before he could say anything else, he saw Helga Hufflepuff in the room with Pomona Sprout and Filius Flitwick, and sighed in relief and allowed himself to relax on a nearby couch. They were safe now.

* * *

**AN:** So that was the most awaited battle scene, what will happen next? Will Sirius survive or will Salazar (Harry) lose his Godfather again in this world as well.

Keep reading to know more… the next chapter is coming up soon (maybe today!)


	14. Chapter 14: The Healing and OMG

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to Mrs Rowling.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: The Healing and OMG**

Helga Hufflepuff was having a good day teaching one of her favourite subjects, Herbology with professor Sprout. They had three classes in the day and they were free after tea time. She was surprised when she did not find Salazar with Severus at lunch and had questioned Professor Snape about it. But Professor Snape told her that Salazar had left to inspect his chambers. She should have expected Salazar to run to his chamber and start restoring the wards and salvage all that he could. She always loved his chambers and used to go there to get some quiet time or to practise her elemental powers. She hoped that Salazar would restore the chambers to their former glory so that she could go there again and remember the halcyon days of her life as Helga Hufflepuff.

Once the tea time approached, Professor Sprout and Helga were walking towards the staff room when a Patronus suddenly landed in front of them and started taking the shape of half dragon and half phoenix. Professor Sprout screamed at the sight but relaxed when she felt Helga's hand on her shoulder.

Helga recognised the Patronus immediately as Salazar's and wondered what on earth had happened that would make Salazar send her a Patronus message. But before she could think anymore the Patronus started to speak in Salazar's voice.

"Hurry to the old extensive infirmary and bring along any Professors that are with you currently, as long as they do not have classes for another couple of hours."

With that the Patronus dissolved and Helga turned to Professor Sprout

"Professor you do not have any more classes to attend to today, do you?"

"No, Professor, I am done for the day, but who was that message from? I have never seen this method of communicating before."

"That was Salazar's message, I suppose we should hurry. By the way that was a way created by us to use as a safer method of communicating. But I suppose it was never passed over."

Whilst talking about that the two ladies moved quickly to the second floor, where they were met with Rowena Ravenclaw and Professor Flitwick.

"Row, I suppose you got Sal's message as well?"

"Yes, Helga I did, but I also received Ric's message not long after asking me to wait for Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. Apparently they are on their way without Ric as I suppose Sal has asked him to do something before coming. Would you mind taking Professor Flitwick with you? I will join you as soon as Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are here "

"Sure Row, come soon. Professor Flitwick, would you please come with us?"

"Of course Lady Hufflepuff, but where are we going? I thought we were going towards the infirmary?"

Helga had started walking towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, with Professors Sprout and Flitwick on her toes.

"Yes we are, but not the common school infirmary. We are going to Salazar's infirmary down in his Chambers."

"In the Chamber of Secrets? But why are we heading to Moaning Myrtles' bathroom? It is haunted and not used anymore."

"Yes we built this bathroom over Salazar's chambers' entrance to annoy him one day. And it is good that the toilets are not used as the entrance of Salazar's chambers is through these washrooms."

As they reached inside the bathroom, Helga gestured the Professors to stop and pressed her palm on a particular seemingly normal rock on the wall. As she did this the basins sank in the floor to give way to a staircase.

The staircase started moving as Helga approached the entrance. Giving a reassuring smile to the Professors, she motioned them to join her as she got onto the staircase.

The stairs carried them down deep within the bowels of Hogwarts. Reaching the bottom, Helga could see that Salazar had worked hard on his chambers during the day. The entrance hall looked almost the same as it did back in the day.

After the Professors joined her, she quickly led them through the welcoming main chambers into the infirmary.

Just as they entered the infirmary (which she could see was recently cleaned and sanitised) they saw Salazar entering with two stretchers and Remus, Molly, James and Lily on his heels. On the stretchers were Sirius and Arthur.

Everyone looked like they had just fought a battle and instantly the healer in her took charge of the situation.

Salazar had laid Sirius on the stone bed, which told her that Sirius needed some ritualistic healing but was under the static charm. After that Salazar moved her father in this life to another bed and started healing his injuries. This left her to go over to James, who seemed most injured from the remaining.

Just as she had finished healing James' legs and was starting to heal his other injuries by spells, Rowena entered the infirmary with the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall on her heels.

"Row, it's good that you are here, can you heal the minor injuries of the person here, I have already healed a deep gash on his chest and removed the static charm on him. But he needs some more healing. Meanwhile I will get some potions."

Rowena nodded and immediately took over casting the healing spells, but before Salazar could go and fetch the potions two things happened at the same time.

The Headmaster stopped him and asked what happened and the mirror buzzed. Hence Salazar turned the mirror on to see Godric's face in there.

"Sal, I am in the Hospital Wing right now and have Professor Snape and the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey here with me. What happened and what do you need?"

"Ric, there was an attack on few of the professors who were out in Hogsmeade. I will explain more later, but we need to get on the healing first. Madam Pomfrey, do you have about six vials of blood replenishing potion, a couple of calming draughts, a bowl full of normal healing salve and about five pain relieving potions?"

"Yes, Lord Slytherin, however, I am afraid I have run out of calming draughts." Replied Madam Pomfrey quickly. not bothering to wait for a reply, she dashed off to get the supplies.

"I have five phials of Calming Draught with me right now; I can bring them with me." Severus supplied

"Good, come down as quickly as possible," Salazar replied briskly.

"We are on our way, should be there in a couple of minutes." Godric replied after Severus had gone off to help gather the required supplies.

As soon as Godric cut the connection, Salazar rushed to his potions store room.

* * *

Helga had just finished healing James and Lily and had moved on to Remus. She made Remus lie on one of the beds and asked James not to move too much for a couple of minutes. Whilst healing Remus she realised that he would need a dose of counter-silvering potion to counter the effects of having silver near his throat for a while.

Making the werewolf lie down, she asked Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore to make sure none of her patients left their beds.

Just as she was about to enter the potions lab, Salazar came out with a variety of potions and gave one to her for Remus. She thanked him and quickly moved over to give the potions to Remus.

After drinking it he regained the colour on his face and looked much better, so she allowed him to get up and sit on a couch.

Just then Godric rushed in with Severus and Madam Pomfrey on his heels and she helped the nurse to administer the potions and salves. She gave some calming draught to Molly, Lily, James, Remus and Arthur (who had by now woken up after being healed but still looked pale).

She further gave four vials blood replenishing potion, a vial of pain relieving potions to Arthur and James.

She also added a vial of pain relieving potion for Remus.

After doing that, she looked around and saw that everyone else was free and was either resting or seating on one of the couches or chairs around the infirmary, watching Salazar work. So she quickly went over to help Salazar.

She casted a diagnosis charm on Sirius and found that there was a static charm on him. She also found a number of small injuries and the one curse which made her gasp.

* * *

As Professor McGonagall entered the chambers with Lady Ravenclaw she was not only amazed at the fact that all founders knew the location of the chambers, but she was also amazed at how welcoming the main chamber looked even if it was decorated with some stone snakes.

But she could not spend much time there and had rushed off to a room that was an infirmary. When she had heard the Patronus message from Lord Slytherin, she did not know what to think, but then had rushed here to find out what had happened.

However, after entering the infirmary she found four of her colleagues and two of her Griffins, lying in the hospital bed and being treated by either Lord Slytherin or Lady Hufflepuff.

She did not know what to think and seemed to have lost her power of speech as she watched Lady Ravenclaw take over healing Mr Weasley from Lord Slytherin.

As she heard about a deep gash on the chest she knew the curse that had caused that, it was the same curse that had killed one of their Order Members, Edgar Bones, a couple of months ago. But she was relieved when she heard that the gash was healed.

However just as Lord Slytherin was about to leave through another door, Albus asked the question that was ringing in his mind since she entered the infirmary. But along with Albus' question there was also a low ringing voice that seemed to come from an empty frame on the wall.

She watched as Lord Slytherin walked up to the frame and Lord Gryffindor's face was made visible.

As Lord Slytherin explained the events briefly, she felt the blood leave her face, her Griffins were attacked and she was not there to help them!

But when Lady Hufflepuff asked her to watch over Remus and Lily she knew she had to get a control on herself. So she pulled herself to her full height and stood in between Remus and Lily's beds, not letting them get up unless Lady Hufflepuff allowed them.

However, Lady Hufflepuff returned soon after taking a potion from Lord Slytherin and gave it to Remus. She had not seen the potion before but it made the colour come back to Remus' face so that was a good thing she supposed.

But within minutes Lord Gryffindor was in there and Madam Pomfrey and Severus were with him. So she let herself settle down on one of the comfortable chairs available in the room. She was followed by Albus, Pomona and Filius as they were not doing anything and wanted to get out of the way and allow the others to do their jobs.

After a few moments, they were joined by Lord Gryffindor, Lady Ravenclaw, Madam Pomfrey and Severus.

She took the moment to look around and found Lord Slytherin working on a desk beside a stone bed. With a bolt of shock she realised that the person on the stone bed was none other than Sirius Black.

Lady Hufflepuff soon joined Lord Slytherin and cast few diagnosis charms on Sirius. She could not understand what the different colours meant but when she heard Lady Hufflepuff gasp and look at Lord Slytherin with eyes and mouth wide; she knew that Sirius' condition was very bad.

But what she head next was not something she was expecting to hear.

"Sal, sicco curse? You are not doing what I think you are going to do, are you?"

This question of Lady Hufflepuff made Lord Gryffindor and Lady Ravenclaw get up from their seats while yelling "what".

This reaction and the name of the curse caused Minerva to lose what little colour was left on her face.

She knew that there was no cure for the sicco curse. That curse literally leaves the victim with only skin. Although that's the only thing that is known about the curse, as whatever causes this reaction, does not leave behind any symptom or evidence as to where the bones and other organs of the body disappeared. The only known way to identify the curse is the effects of the curse on the victim. The victim keeps screaming for about half an hour before he is left with only his skin and nothing else. It was one of the most painful ways of dying. But if Sirius was hit with that curse then why was he not screaming? And what was Lord Slytherin doing? And why were the other founders screaming at Lord Slytherin?

* * *

Salazar was so relieved to see Rowena take over healing of Arthur from him and after the quick explanation and instructions to Snape, Madam Pomfrey and Godric, he quickly left to collect some potions required for the ritual to heal Sirius. He also grabbed the potion for Remus to counter the effects of silver dagger and came back in the main infirmary. Where he handed Remus' potion to Helga and quickly conjured a stone work station and started working on starting the ritual.

After sometime Helga joined him and cast a diagnosis charm on Sirius and got the same result that he already knew. He knew that Helga would know what he was about to do and would not agree with it but he had to do it.

"Sal, the sicco curse? You are not doing what I think you are going to do are you?"

He heard Helga scream but did not look away from his work, and continued to mix the healing salve with burn calming paste. After that he added a few drops of Phoenix tears to a potion nearby and stirred it.

But before he could do anything else, Rowena and Godric joined Helga and started shouting his name loudly.

"SAL, YOU ARE NOT DOING THAT AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU ARE NOT DOING THAT"

"SAL BE REASONABLE"

He looked up from his work with pain filled eyes and looked straight into Rowena's eyes

"Be reasonable? I should be reasonable Row? He is dying over there"

He knew that others were watching so he opened the telepathic link with all founders and continued telepathically.

"I will not lose him again, Hermione. This time I can save Sirius and if it means that I have to bear that pain then so be it. I was willing to die for Sirius back in our fifth year and I will do it again. BUT I WILL NOT LOSE MY GODFATHER AGAIN."

He looked in to the eyes of each founder and continued out loud

"I am not going to sit there and watch him die when I know I can save him, I refuse to do that. I can and will heal him and do not try to stop me from doing that"

"I would do anything to save him." He finished telepathically, as he watched tears roll down the eyes of two females. Godric too had moisture in his eyes. But they nodded.

Salazar went back to filling the vials and then took the ritual dagger from the desk and sliced his palm and let his blood flow in the potion.

After the required amount of blood was in the potion he touched the cut with the blade again and the cut healed itself.

Rowena and Godric moved back to join the others but Helga refused to move from Salazar's side.

* * *

Rowena and Godric quietly explained about the "sicco curse" to the others present.

"The sicco curse does seem incurable but that is because the people that are hit with it cannot tell others how it feels exactly and thus it is not known how to counter that. The sicco curse is a kind of fire curse that increases the heat of the blood and thus melts the internal organs." Godric explained to the horror of the listening audience

"There is no way to detect it as well, so no Healer would be able to know if you are hit with the curse unless a static charm is placed on the victim to stop the curse from spreading. After half an hour the effect starts. But luckily Sal must have seen the curse being cast and was able to put the static charm. Thus he captured the curse in its place. We will now have to remove the curse before the static charm wears off. After that Sirius should be healthy as a horse." Rowena continued with the explanation

Everyone turned their attention back to Salazar. He was mixing his own blood with some water in a bowl. After doing that he ran a diagnosis charm on Sirius. Satisfied with the results, he handed the potion vials and the bowl filled with a paste to Helga.

"Two vials before and three after" Helga who by then had finished healing other injuries of Sirius, nodded and took the vials and salve from Salazar.

Then Salazar left his wand on the working station and went to stand by Sirius' bedside. He spread his hands to position them a few centimetres above Sirius' unconscious form. His palms were facing Sirius.

Salazar closed his eyes and started chanting, and Helga started putting drops of the blood replenishing potion in Sirius' mouth and making him swallow it.

After a few moments a bright orange ball of light came out from Sirius and started floating in the air.

Sal opened his eyes and watched the ball of light intently. Helga started applying the salve at the place on Sirius' chest from where the ball of light had come out.

Rowena went ahead and picked up the bowl that was filled with potion that was mixed with Salazar's blood and gave it to Salazar. After taking the bowl Salazar started to chase the ball of light. The ball had started moving ahead and had reached a empty space a little away from the people gathered in the room. The professors tried to go after Salazar but Godric stopped them and silently asked them to watch.

As they were watching this Sirius woke up and Helga had moved to stand by Godric and Rowena in front of the others. Sirius remembered having the sicco curse cast on him and was confused at how he was still alive. He looked around to find some answers but found everyone watching Slytherin and curiously watched what was happening.

Salazar on the other hand was focused solely on the ball of light and after a few moments. He threw the mixture in his hands on the ball. Once the mixture touched the ball it started expanding and moved towards Salazar threateningly. Salazar closed his eyes and welcomed the light with open arms. Slowly the light engulfed Salazar completely to the horror of the witnessing crowd. As the light of the curse faded everyone could see Salazar's skin had turned red. But before anyone could make a move Salazar's body caught fire and a terrible scream left Salazar's mouth.

The on looking crowd was frozen in horror. But after a few moments the fire subsidised and Salazar's unconscious form fell on the floor

* * *

Helga ran to Salazar and magically floated his unconscious form on another stone bed that was conjured by Rowena. She handed the potion Salazar gave her to Rowena and herself started applying the healing salve on Salazar's palms, toes and forehead. Godric joined her and helped her to apply the salve on his legs and his chest.

After a few minutes two vials of the potion and salve was finished and everyone waited for Salazar to wake up.

Meanwhile, the Professors of Hogwarts were hugging Sirius (or in case of Severus just nodding at him) and updating him on what happened.

After that everyone was watching Salazar with wide eyes, whilst the Headmaster sent a quick message via Fawkes to Professor Sinistra to inform the students that all the afternoon classes were cancelled except Astronomy.

* * *

**AN**: I would like to dedicate this chapter to my beta Teufel1987 for betaing these three chapters so quickly and sending them to me as a belated Christmas/New Year gift. You are really a gem. Thank you so much.

NowI have some bad news for everyone. Due to some personal reason I will not be able to post any more updates till about mid-April. It might be end of April before I post another chapter. I am sorry about this but this was the reason that I gave you 3 chapters in one day.

However this does not mean that you will not post reviews or tell me what you would like to see in the story next. I might not be able to reply to your reviews or messages but I assure you that as soon as I get time I will read them and reply to you.

Once again wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year.


	15. Chapter 15: Don't do that to us!

**Disclaimer****:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to JK Rowling.

**Hey all,**

Well as I promised you all, its almost mid-April and I am back with another chapter for you all. I hope you will like it and would wait to hear back from you.

I know no one likes these speeches before the chapter but please bear with me for few moments. I have not been able to reply to all of your lovely reviews so I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the members who reviewed the last chapter.

Now I also realised that some of you are not sure which part of this story was written by me and which wasn't. So I just wanted to clarify, I did adopt JadeofMara's story but as I started planning where I would like to take the story the characters came out very different and same went for the storyline. So the only things I took from Mara's story was few descriptions of the places and people. Mara has stopped writing at the point where the Founders were introduced to the school and the way it went was very different.

So in short, the plot is all mine and I am glad you are liking it. But the credit for the initial idea and inspiration goes to Mara.

Now I am going to stop blabbing and continue with the most waited chapter before someone decides to kill me ;)

* * *

**Chapter fifteen – Don't do that to us!**

"Hel, is he alright? Why is he not opening his eyes?"

Rowena could not help but ask this question after few hours had passed by and Salazar had yet to wake up.

History always portrayed Rowena Ravenclaw as a strict woman, whose only love was books and who would never let her hair loose. But that was far from reality. While Rowena did like her books and always put more emphasis on logic, she loved her friends to death and could not take it if any of them were hurt.

She could, of course, heal some minor wounds and brew some basic potions, but she was not an expert at healing magic or rituals. This was the reason that she was not sure how long it might take for Salazar to wake up. But she did remember the last time he had taken the curse upon himself and had collapsed; it only took him a couple of minutes to wake up. Although he had suffered with some after effects - he was weak for about a month and could not eat much. At that time he was physically exhausted from a battle and had taken the curse that was meant for Godric.

However, what worried her the most, was that as Hermione, she knew that Harry's body had never taken such a dark curse on itself and was worried if he would survive it and if so how much damage would he sustain. Her worries were growing by each passing moment and she felt as if she was losing Salazar again. And she was unable to do anything to help him.

* * *

On the other side Helga who was a healer in her own right was a novice when it came to ritualistic healing (Salazar had not taught her that!). Whilst she could assist Salazar and follow his orders she had no idea how things worked and when Salazar would open his eyes.

She knew how protective Rowena can get about her friends and can only imagine the distress and helplessness she might be feeling by her inability to help Salazar.

However the only reply she could give to Rowena's question was a very simple and short one: one that neither Rowena not Godric was going to like.

"I don't know Row, I don't know."

"What do you mean by that? You are supposed to be the healer here and you are telling us that you don't know when our friend would wake up? Can you at least tell us if he is alright?"

"Ric, I know how you are feeling but I am not an expert on the ritualistic healing and you know that. Till now I was only following Sal's instructions and he did not tell me anything more than that! And I cannot even cast the spell to know if he is alright or not! Because I remember Salazar telling me that casting such spells would be more harmful than anything. So, I don't know what to do Ric… I can only wait and see … when he will wake up ... and he better wake up soon… or ... or I ... I will bring him back from the dead and hex every inch of him badly."

Helga's reply made Rowena and Godric wrap their arms around Helga to comfort her, as they knew how hard it must have been for her to see Salazar in this state.

Godric held Helga's shoulders and made her look at him.

"I am sorry for lashing out on you like that earlier"

"He will wake up soon won't he? I … I swear I will listen to whatever he says and never threaten him or ... or fight with him but I can't lose him Ric, I … I just can't lose him"  
She hugged her brother and started weeping as the past memories of Salazar leaving her alone resurfaced in her mind; and every part of her was scared to face that again.

Godric held his sister in a tight embrace and with wet eyes prayed to whatever deity that was up there to just bring his friend back.

Rowena too could not control her tears but she decided not to come in between the two siblings and went near Salazar's bed and held his hand in hers as she sat on a wooden chair that she had just conjured.

* * *

In one corner of the room the other occupants of the infirmary were also anxiously waiting for Salazar to wake up.

Professors Flitwick, Sprout, Snape and McGonagall had gone back to take care of the things in the school (although Snape was very reluctant to do so but the Headmaster reminded him that he was needed back in the school, and so he went);the Weasleys had also gone back to The Burrow so that Mr Weasley could get some rest.

However the Marauders and Lily could not find it in themselves to leave the man who had (as it seemed) risked his life to save Sirius; and go back to their lives. They were in shock to know that the notorious Salazar Slytherin had gone out of his way and not only protected them from the Death Eaters but had also taken a deadly curse on himself. They also knew that Salazar Slytherin knew the result of such an action – if the reaction of other founders, before Salazar went through with his plan, was anything to go by. Begrudgingly all their previous prejudices against the notorious founder were gone and they had grown to respect the person that he was. They were also very worried for him and confused. They didn't know why but as they saw Salazar lying on the bed, pale and weak, they felt as if someone very dear to them was lying there.

This was the emotion that confused them the most, but they reasoned that it was because Salazar had saved one of them, that they felt so bad; and they refused to think about anything else as they watched the founder of Hufflepuff house have a break down at the thought of losing Slytherin.

* * *

The Headmaster was also sitting on one of the fluffy armchairs that he had transfigured (and it was surprisingly plain without the usual outrageous design on it). Although he appeared to be relaxed in his seat, he was very worried for the health of the young man currently laying on one the beds.

He knew that the Sicco curse kills and was intrigued when he learnt that Salazar was going to save Sirius. He of course knew that as Harry he must have been close to Sirius but was surprised at the emotion behind his voice when he told the other founders how he would not allow Sirius to die when there was something he can do about it.

Now as he sat there and observed the Marauders and Lily's reaction to the young man he wondered if he should let them know about the reality of the four (supposed) founders. He wondered if after knowing the truth they will accept the young Salazar as their son.

As he mulled over the idea while observing the Marauders and Lily he could see that their hatred for the man was gone and that they were seeing him for what the man really was rather than being blinded by the notoriety of name of Salazar Slytherin.

If he was to admit the truth to himself, he was also a bit wary of the notorious founder. However, after learning and being convinced that they were not the founders but their reincarnations, he had observed the interactions between the four. What he saw there was that even after the supposed historic fight between the two male founders, Salazar Slytherin was still the spokesperson of the group and Godric Gryffindor did not seem to mind that in the least or have any enmity against Slytherin.

This suggested that the history was not entirely correct and there certainly was something that was missing. His theory was proven correct by the day's events and young Harry's actions.

Now he only hoped that Salazar would wake up and recover soon so that he could get to know the person better and also discuss the situation of Voldemort with him.

Another thing that proved that the history books were inaccurate was the reactions of the other founders. He could see from the way that the other three founders were crying (or had moist eyes in Godric's case) that they must be reliving the time when Slytherin had left them. But the question was why had he done so? Was there really a fight between the two founders? If so, was it really big enough for Slytherin to desert his friends, his wife (and possibly his children) as well? He didn't think so. Then what had prompted the history books to write about Slytherin's departure and the fight? He also wondered that if the history books were wrong about that, then, what else were they wrong about? Was Salazar Slytherin a dark wizard? Or was that also a creation of the history writers?

So many similar thoughts were going around in the mind of the Headmaster and he finally decided that time will only tell what was right but he was sure to get to know the Slytherin founder more closely.

* * *

While the Headmaster was busy observing the reactions of the other founders and mulling over the character of Salazar Slytherin, Helga had stopped crying and was now sitting near Salazar's bed and holding his free hand, while Godric was standing behind her and offering her silent support whilst waiting for his friend to wake up.

"You better wake up soon Salazar Slytherin. You cannot leave us like this. See what you have done. You have made Helga cry. How could you? Do you know how she might be feeling to see you like this? How we all are feeling? How could you make us go through this? We told you not to do that! But no, you just cannot listen now can you, Salazar Slytherin? You just have to go ahead and do what you want to. You never think about us do you? You never think about our feelings when you put yourself in danger like this. Did you even think for a second about Helga or Ric or even me before you decided to play with your life like that? Did you think what would happen to us if … if something happened to you? Did you…"

However Rowena's speech was interrupted by a low voice coming from the young man on the bed

"Relax Row, one measly little curse cannot kill me. You should know that better than anyone."

This little sentence from Salazar was enough to get everyone in the room on their feet. But before anyone could do anything Salazar was engulfed into a tight embrace by a tearful Rowena.

"Don't you ever do that to us again Sal, we can't lose you again I can't lose my best friend and honorary brother again."

She came out of hug and said the next sentence with a scowl on her face "do you understand that Salazar Slytherin?" although her wet eyes ruined the effect of it

"Yes ma'am" Salazar immediately agreed to it as he knew that arguing with her now was futile.

However just as he agreed to it he felt Godric and Rowena smack both his shoulders from either side.

"Oww! What was that for? Is that how you treat a sick person?"

"That was for making Helga cry!" was the only angry response he got from Godric

This made Salazar turn to Helga. The sight of her fearful wet eyes and messy hair made Salazar's heart twist in agony and he motioned her to come closer.

It was as if that was all she needed and she threw herself at him and hugged him as if her life depended on it. Tears of relief were pouring out of her eyes.

Salazar held her for some time and kept whispering sweet nothings in her ears.

After a while she came out of the embrace and cast some diagnosis charms on him. After being satisfied of his health she gave him a few health potions and told him that he needs to rest for the day and keep taking the potions for the rest of the week.

He agreed to all of it without any protests as he knew how much this incident had affected her and all his friends.

* * *

The Marauders, Lily and Dumbledore felt relief wash over them as they saw that Salazar had finally opened his eyes. However the next incident surprised them the most, they always thought that Salazar was the least liked member of the four and that the two ladies were more attached to the founder of Gryffindor house rather than Slytherin house. It wasn't as if they had seen them for the first time but believe it or not they had met them less than 24 hours before and the shock of having the Founders between them was too much for them to notice anything else before this. But the sight of Lady Ravenclaw and not Lady Hufflepuff (who was Salazar's wife) being the first one to hug Salazar to death broke their misconception of Gryffindor being the ladies' man.

They did not hear what Lady Ravenclaw told Salazar but they did see her trying to intimidate him after she broke apart and they all had a soft smile on their face at the display of their true friendship.

After a while, when Lady Hufflepuff broke their embrace, the five people from this dimension started approaching the young founders.

As they approached Dumbledore took the lead

"It is good to see that you are awake, Lord Slytherin, How are you feeling."

"Headmaster," Salazar said with a nod. "I am fine, thank you. I hope your professor is not hurt, I am sorry I did not catch your name Professor?"

Saying so Salazar looked at Sirius,

"Black, Professor Sirius Black, Lord Slytherin, and thank you… thank you so much for saving my life I don't know what else to say. I mean … I … Are you ok?"

Salazar smiled softly

"I am fine …"

"Define 'fine'"

Salazar looked at Godric after his question and smirked slightly whilst replying

"I stand corrected. I have been better but nothing bad to worry about. I should be back to normal by tomorrow morning. Then Godric you can test me and see I am telling the truth or not."

"I will take you up on that then Sal"

Dumbledore was watching this conversation with some amusement

"It is good to see you well after the curse you took on yourself Lord Slytherin, and I would like it very much if you could share the events of the night with me. However, I would not ask that of you for now. As for now you need to take some rest."

"Of course Professor, shall we meet in your office after breakfast tomorrow?"

"That is acceptable, thank you. We shall allow you to rest now. However, I am afraid that we would have to ask one of you to escort us out"

"Of course, Headmaster I will escort you to the main door."

"Thank you Lord Gryffindor."

Saying that Godric escorted the Headmaster, Marauders and Lily out of the Chambers whilst the two witches made sure that Salazar took some rest, much to Salazar's dismay.

* * *

**AN:** I would like to dedicate this chapter to all those lovely people out there who I know have waited for this chapter for about 3 months. I am really hoping to see reviews from all of you again. And don't worry the updates will be regular from now.


	16. Chapter 16: The Request & The Test

******Disclaimer****:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to JK Rowling.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen – The Request & The Test**

Breakfast the next morning was a quiet affair in the Great Hall. Every one of the pupils were wondering why Salazar Slytherin had not turned up yesterday with the resident potions master of the school.

Every student was curious and eager to know more about the founder of the Slytherin house. However if you asked some of the Gryffindor students then they would vehemently deny it.

The teachers were another matter altogether. Unlike the students, they knew the whereabouts of the Founder of the house of cunning and ambition. However, in a radical shift from yesterday, when they were determined to ignore Salazar, they were now just as, if not more, curious about the fourth founder.

The subject of everyone's curiosity looked healthy and well after taking numerous potions, and a good night's rest in his beloved chambers. He was currently busy eating his breakfast seemingly oblivious to the attention he was gaining.

As it was a weekend, the students and teachers slowly drifted out of the hall to various parts of the castle.

The founders made their way to the headmaster's office.

When they entered the office they found that the headmaster was accompanied by a majority of his staff and Mr and Mrs Weasley. This did not surprise them as they knew that everyone would be curious about the details of yesterday's event and especially Salazar's role in it.

So after conjuring comfortable armchairs for themselves, Salazar opened the conversation for the day.

"I understand that the purpose of this meeting is for me to explain yesterday's events and especially my role in it. Am I right, headmaster?"

"Indeed, my lord."

Salazar started his tale from the beginning when he had gone to his chambers to assess the damage as Professor Snape did not have lessons till evening (Snape confirmed this by nodding).

"As I was walking through the halls I got a bad feeling, as if something wasn't quite right and something bad was about to happen. Now you must understand that I am not a seer but my mother was a seer. Not many knew about that of course."

Not noticing or ignoring the intrigued expressions on the staff's face upon finding out a hitherto unknown fact about him, Salazar continued. "My mother was also good at potions. So when she realised that I had partly inherited her skill allowing me to get only a feeling about the future, she invented a potion.

"This potion is easy to make but recreates the effects of a true seer's vision based on the feeling of a seeker; in this case the seeker would be me. Now yesterday when I got that feeling I decided to brew the potion as soon as possible to know the reason behind this feeling of mine."

"However, owing to the condition of the chambers this was not possible for some time. So, after a few hours, when the potion was finally ready, I used it and saw the ensuing battle in Hogsmead. I recognised the place as it was near the entrance to the Chamber's infirmary that we had created to enable us to transport the injured quickly. Furthermore, I also saw the faces of the teachers of this school."

Salazar paused for few moments before continuing, to drink some water and also to give everyone some time to let the information sink in. Snape seemed very interested in the aforementioned potion. The others were amazed that the infamous founder has some seer blood in him.

Salazar then went on to explain why he didn't call for help and what happened when he reached the scene of the battle. He briefly explained that the attacker was going to use some curse on the only female professor there when Professor Black helped and got hit with sicco curse. He also explained that he cast a volley of spells and the attackers quickly retreated and after their retreat how he put stasis charm on Sirius and Mr Weasley.

"I suppose you know what happened after that"

Salazar sat back to allow everyone time to gather their thoughts and let the information sink in.

After a few moments Dumbledore was first to break the silence.

"Thank you for the very insightful account on yesterday's events Lord Slytherin. I would like to thank you for helping my staff and would like to introduce you to Mr and Mrs Weasley; the red haired couple that you saved yesterday." Saying so Dumbledore nodded towards the Weasleys.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lord Slytherin and thank you for saving us yesterday." Mr Weasley said courteously

"I hope you are feeling better now, Mr Weasley?" Salazar inquired

"Yes I am, Lord Slytherin, but I hope that you are feeling better as well." Mr Weasley replied a little anxiously, hoping he had not crossed the line and angered the young founder.

However Salazar smiled at him before replying with a little smugness in his tone

"I am as good as new, Mr Weasley."

"I will be the judge of that Sal, after I have tested you. I suppose it is the time for that now, isn't it?" Godric cut in with a stern voice.

"Of course Ric, whatever you say" Salazar replied half mockingly.

"Headmaster, if there are no further questions or urgent issues that require our attention now, then I would like to take your leave. Salazar here needs to give a test to prove that what he claims about his health is indeed true." Godric asked in a tone that made it clear that there was no option of denying.

Albus was a little intrigued about the test but decided not to push further before replying

"Of course, Lord Gryffindor, there are no pressing issues at the moment, but should the need arise, do we have a way to know how to contact you?"

"Just search for Rowena or Helga and they should be able to contact us. This test only requires the two of us. You will be able to find the ladies without any help. Now if you will excuse us."

After having his word, Godric gave Salazar an imperious look before leaving the office quickly.

"My apologies everyone," Salazar said as he stood up, vanishing his chair. "But it seems Godric is too impatient. I must leave now, but would love to have an opportunity to be able to make acquaintances with each and everyone here. Perhaps some other time," he inclined his head towards Dumbledore, "Headmaster."

Turning on his heel, he exited the office gracefully.

Everyone was silent after the departure of the male founders and no one seemed to know what to say. However, before anyone could say or do anything a large brown owl flew down the Headmaster's desk from the window. It was carrying a letter for the Headmaster and had the Minister of Magic's seal on it.

Curiously Albus opened the letter

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_It has come to my attention that Hogwarts is currently playing host to its Four Founders, who have somehow, through means beyond our understanding, managed to travel to our time. _

_As this is truly a unique opportunity, especially given the identities of our guests, I wish to meet them to personally welcome them to modern times and see for myself what these illustrious historical figures are like in real life. Thus I would like it if you could convey my wishes to them and arrange for a meeting with them by the 4__th__ of September 1996 at 4 p.m. If this is not suitable then feel free to reply back with a date suggesting the alternative. _

_I look forward towards meeting the most powerful witches and wizards of all time in person. _

_Yours Faithfully,_

_Amelia Bones_

_Minister of Magic_

Setting the letter down, Albus looked at the remaining two founders. "It would seem that the news of your arrival has travelled far and wide. All the way to the Minister of Magic in fact." He looked speculatively at them.

"The Minister?"

"Indeed, Lady Ravenclaw, the Minister of Magic has just sent me a letter requesting me to arrange a meeting between her and the four of you."

"Well, that is interesting, however we cannot reply to this alone. The request is for all four of us, so we must consult with Sal and Ric before saying anything." Rowena walked to one of the portraits and tapped her wand on the frames and said "Salazar please"

Everyone was looking from the frame to Lady Ravenclaw and back again, wondering what she was doing. However their questions were answered when the portrait went blank and suddenly Salazar Slytherin's face was visible to them.

Slytherin was wearing a loose shirt and trousers; he sported protective armour around his lower legs, his arms, and his chest. Everyone in the office was on their feet in alarm, looking at Salazar Slytherin dressed like that. Only one thought was going on in their minds: was Salazar Slytherin planning to go to battle?

"What happened, Row?" a concerned Salazar enquired.

"The Minister of Magic has written to Professor Dumbledore and requested a meeting, Sal."

"Hmm… well we must discuss this … but not now, I need to go give a test for Ric" Salazar replied with an eye role

"However, please feel free to come and watch, then after that we can discuss the matters over in the meeting room. How does that sound? I will let Ric know about this… "

"Oh that would be great, it has been long since I had the opportunity to witness that, right Helga?" Anyone in the room could make out the enthusiasm in Rowena's voice as she said that. "Yes Row, I wouldn't want to miss this chance" Helga replied with a slight smirk on her face.

"Great! Professor Dumbledore, the offer is open for you, any Professors and Mr and Mrs Weasley, should they wish to join the girls." Salazar offered looking at all of them.

"I must admit that I am rather intrigued to know how Lord Gryffindor plans to test you, and would happily join to watch the events. I will also bring everyone currently in the office with me unless they have something else that requires their urgent attention." Dumbledore replied with bright twinkle in his eyes.

"Alright then, see you all soon" Salazar closed the connection and the frame was back to the normal portrait.

Rowena moved to face them before addressing them

"Everyone who wishes to join, please gather around and hold each other's hands. Make sure you are all touching someone's hand. Professor Dumbledore you may take my hand. Alright, is everyone ready? We need to make a chain so in the end everyone is connected to either Helga or me."

After making sure that everyone was ready, Rowena nodded towards Helga

"To the gallery overlooking the regular training room please" Helga's soft voice was the last thing everyone heard before the surroundings changed and they found themselves in a sort of gallery that overlooked a platform.

A wall of glass separated the gallery and the square platform, facing a bare wall. The remaining two walls were adorned with a myriad of weapons and shields. Doors leading into the arena were situated on these walls.

* * *

After a few moments the doors opened and from the first door Salazar Slytherin walked in in his battle armour with a sword in his hand. From the door opposite to him, Godric Gryffindor walked in wearing similar attire, the legendary Sword of Gryffindor in his hand.

The onlookers could not believe their eyes, they were going to witness Godric Gryffindor challenge Salazar Slytherin for a sword fight?!

* * *

Salazar and Godric faced each other and bowed before laying the terms of the fight

"I, Godric Gryffindor, challenge you Salazar Slytherin, to either defeat me in this sword fight or lead it to a draw, where a draw will mean that should this fight be a real battle situation then none of us will walk away alive."

"I, Salazar Slytherin, accept your challenge and propose that should I win, or draw the match then it will prove that I am healthy and thus will not be taunted or forced to take rest."

"Agreed. Now as the challenger, I have the right to set the rules. No magic allowed, but any other technique is allowed and the wounds should not be fatal."

"Agreed. Now as a defender, I have the right to choose weapons. Any weapon or mixture of weapons is allowed, provided they are not laced with venom or any other similar substances, potions or anything else, which aims to severely harm the opponent."

"Agreed,"

They both bowed at each other before taking their stances. They circled the platform, assessing each other's strategies and waiting for the first move.

Suddenly Godric charged forward and swung his sword over his head, attacking Salazar. Salazar jumped back. Then Godric again swung his sword at Salazar and jumped behind Salazar, making him turn to back. Godric took a step back as Salazar swung his sword up at Godric, who countered the downward swing. He pushed Salazar away, always moving, dancing away from Salazar's attacks. Salazar rushed Godric bringing his sword to Godric's chest, but Godric brought up his sword, stopping the attack, then shoved Salazar making him fall to the ground. Without giving Salazar time to recover Godric charged forward but Salazar aimed a kick at his stomach and quickly stood up when Godric staggered back doubling up in pain. Then before Godric could rise Salazar thrust his sword into his stomach.

However he found his attack was blocked by Godric's sword. Godric shoved forward and Salazar was forced to take two steps back.

Both of them looked at each other as if to re assess each other and daring the other to attack again.

"You know Sal, I think you really should just accept it that you are not in your best form and rest. Or have you really gone soft?" Godric taunted

"Accept defeat? And let your overly grown head grow more? You know if you are not careful enough then soon you won't be able to walk through doors. Now I can't let that happen can I? Unfortunately it's my job to keep you in check. And as far as the question of me accepting defeat is concerned, well that was only a practice round and the fun has not even begun yet." Salazar jested with a light smirk gracing his face

"YOU! You insufferable old snake. How dare you accuse me of having a large head?!" Godric roared

"Oh come on! Not the same old insults! Get creative Ric. Try something new! "

Salazar stealthily steadied his feet and waited for Godric to attack. Godric brought up his sword and charged at Salazar. Salazar ducked under the man's weapon, making the man stumble forward. Salazar swung his sword at the back of the man's knees. Godric's hard leather covering his legs stopped the blade from cutting into him. He rolled forward, and then sprung to his feet. Godric snarled and turned to face Salazar. Salazar brought up his sword and waited. Godric was getting impatient and Salazar could use this to his advantage. He steadied his breath.

This time Godric stepped into the attack bringing his sword across Salazar's chest. Salazar brought up his sword, blocking the Godric's swinging arm, punching Godric in the stomach with his other hand, causing his opponent to move back, gasping.

Salazar swung his sword but Godric blocked the attack by his own blade and with his other hand hit Salazar on his side. Then before giving him a chance to recover he swung his sword down trying to slash Salazar's legs but Salazar jumped up and whilst coming he thrust his elbow in Godric's shoulder

Godric staggered to the ground before he could recover Salazar brought his sword down towards Godric's back but Godric rolled away and stood up quickly.

Godric then started a fresh wave of aggressive attacks on the dark haired wizard, forcing Salazar to go defensive.

Soon Godric had Salazar cornered to a wall covered with small weapons.

Salazar tried to slip away from between the wall and Godric to give himself more space by pushing Godric back. However Godric recovered more quickly than anticipated and quickly he sliced Salazar's right arm with his blade, causing the other wizard to drop his sword. However Godric was not done and he shoved Salazar to the ground and held his sword to Salazar's throat.

"I win Salazar and thus you will be resting for at least two days." Godric exclaimed in triumph

"You are wrong Ric, according to our deal in event of a draw I will not be taunted or forced to rest." Salazar calmly replied not caring about the sword near his throat.

"Yes but that was if you draw the match, but I have won. If this was a real battle you would have been dead by now." Godric replied confused at the nonchalant attitude being displayed by his clearly defeated opponent.

"Now it is true that if this was a real combat situation I would have died by your hands but you would not have survived as well." Saying so, Salazar brought Godric's attention to the dagger he had pressed against the other wizard's abdomen.

As Godric saw this, he moved back three steps in shock. After taking a few calming breaths and coming out of his shock of having been outwitted by his best friend Godric could not help but taunt Salazar.

"You know everyone's right you really are sly… Alright fine it's a draw again then."

After having had his say Godric gave Salazar his hand and helped him get up.

"Like I always tell you the person to kill me will not live longer than me. You should know that" Salazar replied nonchalantly.

"True" Godric replied severely and both of them moved towards the audience box to meet the headmaster.

* * *

**AN:** So here is the next chapter, I hope you have enjoyed it. I would like to dedicate this chapter to my beta and thank him for the strict comments that he gave me when I sent this chapter for editing. I must confess that it was a really hard chapter to write as I do not have much knowledge of sword fighting. However, I really really hope that you like it.


	17. Chapter 17: A little history lesson

******Disclaimer****:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to JK Rowling.

To all my readers,

Thank you so much for the wonderful words, I am glad that my first attempt to describe such a scene was appreciated. I would like to take this opportunity to especially thank all the guest reviewers - -Bellatrix7LilyPotter6928Curly and others who have not mentioned their name. I hope that I will be able to match your expectation in future as well. Keep telling me what you think ;)

Now before anyone hits me I will stop my ramblings here and get on with the story.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen – a little history lesson**

Like all other occupants of the Headmaster's office after the arrival of the letter from Ministry of Magic, Severus Snape was intrigued about the test of Salazar Slytherin. However, he never expected to have the opportunity to watch a sword fighting match between the two.

As the group arrived in the gallery and saw the two founders enter the room with battle armour, Severus could hardly hold back his smirk, and he would definitely enjoy the Slytherin founder defeat the obnoxious Gryffindor. Oh! How he would love to see the faces of the Marauders when that happened! However when the terms were laid, Severus was shocked to know that no magic will be involved. The Salazar Slytherin, who was famous for his views on non-magical people; fight like a Muggle? He Severus Snape was sure that Salazar would refuse this obnoxious terms and attack the big headed Gryffindor with a hex or two. However that thought was thrown out of the window when Salazar agreed.

As the match progressed Severus was truly astonished at the display in front of him. After watching the amazing match, one thing was clear in his mind, there was a lot more to the character of Salazar Slytherin then what was mentioned in the history. Salazar Slytherin was not the man he always imagined him to be. And thus, he was fascinated by the real Salazar Slytherin!

* * *

Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout were just marvelling at the opportunity to watch the match between the two male founders. They were enjoying the contest with a competitive spirit without any bias. They were both amazed to know earlier that Salazar was not a bad person. The fact that the he saved Sirius' life by playing with his own life was proof enough for them to start liking Salazar for who he was and not what history portrayed him to be.

They reasoned that whilst Salazar might choose the path of evil later on in his life, the fact still remained that he had volunteered to teach magical children in a time when magic was generally frowned upon. He had also, along with the other founders, taken on the responsibility of protecting those said children and as far as they knew (from the history books), he had never personally harmed any child, regardless of his biased views against the Muggle born children. Furthermore, this was a younger Slytherin, who had not yet committed any crimes that he was notorious for and it would not be fair to treat him any differently for something he has not (yet) done.

They were now impressed with Salazar's ability to hold a sword and be able to draw the match against one of the most famous sword fighters in the entirety of magical history. This just told them that Salazar was not entirely against the Muggles – he had after all taken the time to learn and master the Muggle art of Swordsmanship!

So what had happened that caused history to overlook all this and why was Salazar known as a dark wizard? Were the history books right?

* * *

Whilst Professor McGonagall was miffed about the slyness by which Salazar drew the match, she had to admit that it was not against the rules.

She was not sure on what to make of the notorious founder. She was rather humbled by the way he had saved Sirius, one of her cubs, but she could not bring herself to confess, even to herself, that history might have been wrong about the Slytherin founder. That was not possible! Slytherin was always an enemy of Muggleborns and hated them. Yes that was right, even if he knew how to wield a sword (a Muggle art) and saved Sirius from the Death Eaters; it did not mean that he was not biased against the Muggleborns right?

* * *

Unknown to everyone, the Marauders and Lily, were having similar thoughts going on in their heads.

Very grudgingly Sirius had to admit that he was impressed by Salazar Slytherin and he could not find any fault against the founder. He had always hated the Slytherin founder but now as he was seeing him in person, all he could think of was, why? Why did history portray him the way it did? The man described in all those history books would never risk his own life to save a stranger who was suffering from a dark curse. In fact he would relish the bloodshed. Then why did he save Sirius? It was very frustratingly confusing for Sirius as he couldn't help but like the person in front of him and he felt disgusted about the fact as well, as this went against everything he believed in for his entire life.

* * *

James had always read and heard that Salazar Slytherin was a dark wizard who amused himself by causing pain to others. That was one thing that made him not want to belong to his house at any cost. He may not seem so, but James would never intentionally hurt anyone. In fact, he would be the first person to do anything he could (even risk his own life) to help the needy. This was the quality that Dumbledore saw in him when he decided to make James the Head Boy. However, now, after seeing the man that Salazar Slytherin really was, James could not help but question history. As he heard Salazar's tale earlier in the day, James had come to the conclusion that he did not hate the person but only some members in that house who were evil. This opinion had put a question mark on a lot of things but he knew one thing for sure, even if all the students in Slytherin House were evil and even if Salazar himself chose the path of evil later in his life; this man was not evil.

* * *

Remus, who was a werewolf himself, knew how fear can cause everyone to portray that person as only pure evil, as if there is nothing good about that person. That was something he experienced every day. As soon as they came to know about him being a werewolf, a majority of the magical population would shun him and close their eyes and block their ears towards any and all the good deeds that he had ever done. There were very few people out there who would overlook his illness and see him for who he really was. Now as he saw the actions of Salazar (when he saved Sirius) heard the selfless explanation of the events earlier in the day (without boasting) and now as he saw the display of a Muggle art by the famous propagator of the pure blood agenda, he couldn't help but think if the same thing had happened to Salazar. But what had Salazar done to warrant such fear? And why only him, and not the other founders as well? This meant that it was not the foundation of the school that gained him such hatred. If not that, then what?

* * *

Lily was a Muggle born and as such had not grown up with a grudge against Slytherin. In fact she was introduced to this prejudice after she entered Hogwarts and then the fact that people like Mulciber and Rosier were in Slytherin did not help her to be unbiased for long. However, she was a fair person deep down and had decided earlier to give Salazar the benefit of doubt. Now, Salazar's actions, and his talents in swordsmanship had made her rethink everything bad she had learned about the founder from the history. She, like Remus, realised that he must have done something that instilled fear in everyone and made them portray him as pure evil. But what she could not understand was what had this selfless man done that made everyone portray him in such light?

* * *

Albus Dumbledore sat and watched the two male founders. To anyone watching him he would appear calm and enjoying the fight, however that was far from the truth. He, of course, knew about the reality of these people and knew that they had already lived an entire lifetime as the founders and have thus come back. It has only been two days since their arrival and he has started to question the source of the notoriety of the Slytherin founder. However, at that moment as he looked around at his other colleagues, he was happy to note that almost everyone was thinking along the same lines.

* * *

Mr Weasley may seem to be Muggle obsessed man but he was much more than that. He always preferred to think and analyse a situation before doing anything. Whilst he was still recuperating from his injuries he was eternally thankful for Salazar Slytherin in his efforts at healing him. He admired Salazar even more after the way he saved Sirius. However he had heard stories about Salazar's notoriety from childhood and thus when he entered the headmaster's office to hear about the events of the previous day from the dark founder he had expected to hear him boast a little. But was surprised when all he heard was bare facts in an emotionless voice. He started wondering why this man was portrayed in a bad light by the historians. He felt as if he was missing something here and try as he might he could not remember ever reading about any act of Salazar that made him evil except that he was prejudiced against Muggleborns and was dark. But what had he _done_ to Muggleborns? He did not know. And now, he doubted if the man before him would even be biased against anyone.

* * *

When it came down to it, Mrs Weasley was a mother first and foremost. Thus she was scared for the safety of her children when she first heard that the dreaded Salazar Slytherin was here. But the events following the Death Eater attack made her rethink and she decided to give Salazar a chance as long as he does not harm anyone. This feeling was strengthened when she heard him speak in the headmaster's office. But she got a feeling that something was missing here and the weirdest thing was that she felt almost protective of him and wanted to stay by his bed and make sure he recovered well after the way he saved Sirius. But, try as she might, she could not explain the feeling.

Thus such thoughts were going on in everyone's minds and almost everyone had decided to look for more clues to find out what Salazar might have done to incur the wrath of the general Wizarding population.

* * *

On the other side, Salazar briefed Godric about the minister's letter and the presence of others in the gallery.

"I wonder who the minister is here, but I swear if it is that brainless twit Fudge, then I am not dealing with him at all!"

Salazar smirked somewhat evilly. "Don't worry Ric," he said, with a wink to his friend. "If it is him then we will see how he copes with Salazar Slytherin." Godric grinned and rubbed his hands together

"Oh! I can't wait to see his face if that is the case"

They went to the changing rooms and changed into their robes before entering the gallery together.

* * *

As soon as they entered, they were hounded by two beautiful ladies, who threw their arms around them in short-lived but nonetheless powerful hugs.

"That was amazing! Oh it has been a long time since I was able to witness that and now I realise how much I missed watching you two!"

Rowena trailed off when she saw that the other three founders had raised their eyebrows and were grinning at her.

Blushing, she sputtered. "Well you know what I mean!"

This just made other founders laugh. However Salazar came to her rescue

"You were telling me about a letter, Row?"

At Salazar's question, the other occupants of the room, who till now were watching the four interact with each other with amused smiles, now turned serious and Dumbledore passed the letter to Salazar.

Salazar read the letter out loud for the benefit of the other occupants in the room. Once he was done, he smiled bemusedly.

"The Minister of Magic is a woman." he intoned to himself. "Interesting, very interesting"

Minerva could not hold her tongue any longer at this statement and that arrogant smirk on Slytherin's face. This was it, the real evil Salazar Slytherin was showing up. She very well knew that a thousand years ago, whilst in muggle world, the women enjoyed equal rights as men, in the Wizarding World that did not happen until after the Founders time. She assumed that it was probably because of Lord Gryffindor that Rowena Ravenclaw (his wife) and Helga Hufflepuff (his sister) were allowed to teach in his school.

"And why can't a woman hold a position of power?" she asked tartly. "She has as much right to become a minister as any other person"

"Excuse me, Professor" Rowena Ravenclaw's cold voice interrupted McGonagall.

"I do not know your name, as we are yet to be formally introduced, but I would like you to take your statements back and apologise to Salazar immediately. I don't know what history has told you about him but I think that you should be thankful to him. If it was not for him, then forget holding a position of power. A female, like yourself, would not even be allowed to hold a wand or learn magic … even from a private tutor."

"She is right," Helga said in an equally cold voice. She was no less angry at this woman's assumptions. It was her husband that was being insulted, after all. "it was Salazar who at a very young age of eleven, fought against everyone in the Wizarding World, even his own father (who at that time was the king), to ensure that Rowena and I get magical training as he came to know that we wanted to learn magic and not do the household work that witches at the time were expected to do. Then when he couldn't find any teacher who was willing to teach us, he took it upon himself to teach us what we know; then after ascending the throne, it was him that created a law that allowed girls to learn not only learn magic but even teach."

As Helga paused in her tirade Godric picked up the speech and continued with the same coldness that was shown in the ladies' eyes.

"It was also Salazar's idea to form a group of high ranking officials who would look after the Magical kingdom, and report to one person in charge of them. This person was known as the Prime Minister of Magical Britain. That person would then deal with everything, unless it was very big, at which time, Salazar would step in as King. And you know why Salazar gave up most of his power, his money, and his status, when he ruled the entire Wizarding World? I will tell you, why. He gave it all up so that he could help young witches and wizards learn magic and create a better society. Not only that, he also gave up his castle. The castle which was his ancestral home, the most secure place in entire Wizarding World, he gave it up to give us a place where we can start the first Wizarding school. This castle, in fact!"

"If not for Salazar," Rowena said in a calmer tone. "Then forget being one of the founders of this prestigious school, I would probably not even be allowed to marry anyone and would be forced to work as a maid. After losing my family, I was all alone in the world; with no one to turn to if I had a problem. It was Salazar that made me his sister in all but blood, and taught me magic when he saw that I loved to learn. He also taught me how to read, and encouraged me to research and invent new spells. He was the person who would spend hours in the library, just because the king would not allow me anywhere near the library if I was alone."

Rowena could not continue anymore as she was overcome by emotion, at that time she felt a hand on her shoulders. When she turned back it was Salazar who was looking at her with an emotionless face.

"You _are_ my sister"

Rowena smiled and hugged him tightly.

Meanwhile, Godric had taken up from where Rowena had left off. "Let me tell you, by doing this he made himself very unpopular, no one who had power wanted to let girls learn how to defend themselves, as they feared that it would diminish the importance of males in society and it was seen as an act against humanity and culture. Some even went so far as to brand him as a dark wizard but he took it all and even more from those who had to send their daughters to the school, against their wishes, as it was a law. So, forgive me if I understand why Salazar is so happy to learn that the Minister of Magic – a post that he created to be the highest in the Wizarding World is held by a woman. He always fought tooth and nail for this and I can imagine him continuing to do so till his last breath."

* * *

To say that everyone was shocked would be an understatement. Everyone always thought that Salazar Slytherin wanted power and was evil. But this was beyond imagination. For some like, Remus, James, Lily, Sirius, Albus and Mr Weasley, everything fell in to place as they can imagine that this might make others wary of Salazar and even portray him as evil and a dark wizard out to harm the community.

The founders could see that the others were left speechless, and calmed down. At the same time Salazar was touched by the protectiveness of his friends and gave them all a smile to show his appreciation.

After giving everyone a few moments to collect their thoughts, Salazar cleared his throat and broke the silence gaining everyone's attention.

"Headmaster, we would be happy to meet the Minister tomorrow at tea time. However, we would really appreciate it if you could give us more details about the current political climate, so we can what to expect from the Minister."

"Of course Lord Slytherin, that is very much acceptable. Minerva, would you be kind enough to owl the Minister confirming the appointment whilst I give the founder more explanation about the situation."

"Of course Headmaster, but I would need someone to take me out of here."

"Of course, my apologies, I will escort everyone out, if everyone can hold each other's hands and then one or two of you can hold on to me. Headmaster, where would you like to hold this conversation?"

"My office should be good as it will enable the other professors to contact me should the need arise Lady Hufflepuff."

"Alright then, I shall see you there in few moments." After nodding at the Headmaster and the other founders, Helga made sure that everyone was holding on to each other before saying "to Professor McGonagall's office please" and disappearing moments before the others moved to the Headmaster's office.

* * *

**AN:** So there was the chapter, I know shocking right? Salazar was the King, he had all the power that everyone today feels he was after, so how did the history miss that fact! Also how did they miss that it was Salazar that made girls have magical education was it all prejudice against him by the historians? Or did something happen to all those records? Wait and watch... ;)


	18. Author's Note

I am sorry ... I know I know... I hate it when I get an email telling me about a new chapter in my fav story ... only to find that it was only an Author's note.

I tried really hard but I had to post this note. I know that an update is due but I wanted to let you all know that I have been very busy recently and haven't been able to write the chapter. I have started writing it and it should be done in a few days. Then it will go to my Beta. So you should have an update in about 10 days or so maximum.

I am not giving up on this story and I will be replacing this note with an update.

Once again sorry for this note.

Pari


	19. Chapter 18: From Bad to Worst I

******Disclaimer****:** I do not own Harry Potter... the plot is my own but the HP world belongs to JK Rowling.

To all my readers,

I know I know I had said that I would update soon but something an other kept coming up so I couldn't finish the chapter satisfactorily. I have rewritten this chapter atleast three times before sending it to my Beta. I am terribly sorry about this. I have not decided about deleting the author's note as I am not sure if it will interfere with everyone receiving the emails or not. So I might keep it anyways.

For all those who are wondering if I have given up on this story, then the answer is no, I have not and will not give up on the story even if it takes me a long time to update. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it is longer than any of my previous chapters. This is to compensate on the delay.

For all those reviewers who gave nice reviews - Thank you so much, I really appreciate your time and comments. Unfortunately I have not been able to reply to all of them but I will try my best to do so in future.

Now getting on with the chapter before someone decides to kill me.

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**Chapter Eighteen: From Good to Worst I**

Albus Dumbledore had always prided himself to be able to anticipate future situations and make back up plans for anything and everything. Hence, today, as he sat in his office at midnight reminiscing about the last two days, he could not believe how everything had gone from good to worse, and furthermore, how he had not anticipated such an event and prepare for it.

He remembered getting a letter from Amelia Bones to arrange a meeting with the Founders and also remembered the sword fighting between Salazar and Godric. If things had not been interesting enough, the events that took place from that point onwards were fascinating.

He remembered how Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Godric Gryffindor (the three supposedly light founders) had jumped to protect Salazar Slytherin and had revealed that it was Salazar who was a King and had introduced laws to educate girls and established the Ministry of Magic. This revelation had raised multiple questions. For one, If Salazar was the last king of Wizarding Britain, wouldn't that fact warrant more of a mention? Wouldn't his family, his siblings, his children, cousins, aunts, uncles ... anyone and everyone who could prove a blood relation to the man want to try and establish themselves as the monarch if he stepped down?

He gave up power, that was all well and good, but that doesn't mean that people are not going to let that go! If he has given so many liberties, then surely he would be seen in a more positive light!

Dumbledore was unhappy. A very large chunk of history was missing! How did no one know that Salazar had founded the Ministry of Magic or that he had made so many laws?

So when the four founders were seated in his office, he had politely asked them for an explanation; he once again reviewed Lord Gryffindor's reply in his Pensieve.

"Headmaster, I understand that you have many questions for us after our little revelation and I can assure you that we will be glad to answer them all in detail. However, that story, as I am sure you can guess, is a long tale. It will take a lot of time and will be hard for us to retell, as I am sure you can understand. Hence I would prefer it if we can have that conversation after our meeting with the Minister tomorrow. I think that at this moment, that meeting is higher up on our agenda. Wouldn't you agree?"

'Long' and 'hard to tell' … those words used by Lord Gryffindor, reverberated in Dumbledore's mind. Whilst he had some idea that history had not portrayed Salazar Slytherin accurately, he had never, in his wildest dreams, foreseen _this._

Continuing with his reviewing of the situations the headmaster remembered telling the founders all the information he had on the war, the role of Ministry and the Minister of Magic herself.

He had begun by explaining the Ministry's very much active role in the on-going war. He had explained that whilst the ministry was fighting against Voldemort, they had no way to predict the place of the next attack or identify any of the followers. The Dark Lord had his own spies inside the ministry but the ministry has so far been unable to return the favour. He also explained that the Order of the Phoenix was a Ministry recognised group to aid the Ministry Aurors in defending against Death Eaters.

Dumbledore had gone further to explain the character of the current Minister of Magic. He gave them a brief overview of her predecessor, Cornelius Fudge, a minister who had lasted all of one month after a vote of no confidence was passed by the Wizengamot once his incompetence and corrupt nature came to light. Then he told them of Amelia Bones' indomitable will, her passion for justice and no-nonsense attitude.

The founders had not said a word during this explanation but had looked pleased about something that he could not put his finger on. However he let it slide figuring that it might be something related to the universe they came from.

After that they had called it a night, heading off to bed a little early. The next day, Dumbledore had received a note from the Founders informing him of their desire of discussing the upcoming meeting with the minister and their plans. They also mentioned that they would not be coming out of their chambers till about 3pm, when they would meet him in his office.

The headmaster had spent the time trying to assimilate all the information he had gathered from these individuals about the founders. He had no doubt in his mind that they were the founders as no one except the four founders themselves would know about the secret chambers of all four of them. But the relationship between them and their claims had really put everything that he had known about them into perspective.

Amelia had flooed into the Headmaster's office directly, and had found all four founders present there along with the Headmaster himself. It was clear that the Minister was disbelieving about the presence of the Founders and had wanted to see them for herself. Nonetheless she had greeted all four of them with reverence and asked about their situation. Hearing that they were researching a way to get back to their timeline, the minister had offered to help them in any way she could. She then welcomed them to this timeline and with respect asked if they had heard about the current political climate from the headmaster.

Hearing that they were fully informed, she stated that should an all-out war break out, the Ministry did not have enough resources to win. Amelia ended with a plea for help from the four luminaries of the magical world.

Lord Gryffindor (who seemed to be the spokesperson for the group today) had assured her that if there was a war when they were in this timeline, then the Ministry could count on their support. He had thanked her for understanding their situation and assured her that the founders had always fought for the welfare and security of the innocent magical people and would continue to do so. However, they had emphasised that they did not want to get involved in politics or be in exposed to any more attention than what they were getting. Amelia was not very happy about it but had understood their situation and had agreed to only ask for their assistance in a battle situation and other than that keep them out of any unnecessary media attention. She had also promised to control the media reports on them.

And so by the end of the two hour meeting, Amelia was visibly more relaxed. She was clearly heartened to have gained the support of four of the greatest witches and wizards of British wizarding history. Even the notorious Salazar Slytherin had agreed to help.

As Dumbledore thought about this, he realised that Amelia would have been worried that if Salazar Slytherin would join hands with Voldemort then together they would be practically unstoppable. But now, with Salazar siding with the Ministry, Voldemort will lose some of his followers. The reason behind this was that the main propaganda of Voldemort was around the point that he was following the footsteps of the noble Salazar Slytherin.

The meeting was an important one and it seemed to be a starting of an acquaintance between the Founders and the Ministry. It could be seen that the Founders had put a lot of thought behind this meeting, and had presented a united front.

However, so far the day had gone just as expected. After the departure of the Minister, the five remaining occupants of the office had remained silent to assimilate their thoughts and go over the details of what had just happened.

After a few moments of silence, Dumbledore remembered gently prodding the Founders to explain their previous statements in the gallery. He also had reminded them that they had promised to explain after the meeting with the Minister.

Dumbledore put the memory in his Pensieve to review the entire conversation.

"Yes, we did promise that, didn't we?" Lord Gryffindor started "Well I seem to remember you were having multiple questions and most of them were about how Salazar was a King and according to you how come no one in history knows about it.

Having said this Lord Gryffindor had looked at Salazar as if asking for his permission.

"I understand that you have to explain this and I am fine with it as long as I do not have to be the one to say it." Salazar replied crisply.

"Of course not, Salazar, the three of us know your story enough to give the Headmaster an overview of it all." Lady Helga had immediately rushed to his side

And so the story of Lord Slytherin was told by his friends.

Lord Gryffindor started the explanation.

"Before going into any details, Headmaster, you must understand that during that time magic was very different, it was kept within the family; and passed down from father to son. For example some families excelled in Healing magic and were often famous as Apothecaries or Healers. Each family had their own speciality. For example, my father's family excelled in sword and wand crafting, and my mother was from a family that excelled in warding. However, this knowledge was known as a family secret, hence it was not taught to the girls as they will marry into another family and then that family will learn the secret. Girls were only allowed to learn some common kitchen and cleaning charms and that too was so that they can control their magic and it does not explode."

"Salazar was made crown prince at a very young age of two. His father knew that he would not have any more children and that is why he wanted Salazar to be efficient in every area of magic that was available to the Wizarding kind. Due to his status of being a king, many noble men and heads of houses relented to teach Salazar their art or at least give him some basic training. By the time Salazar was five years old, he had started training. However, his father was not satisfied with this and felt that something was missing. At that time, all of his ministers were confused as young Salazar was already in intermediate level of Swordsmanship, sword crafting, battle magic, battle tactics potions and many more subjects. And these were the kinds of things that some of the grownups had problems with. Then the King was visited by his long time Welsh friend - Myriddin Emrys. Myriddin had travelled far and wide for many years. He had served as a warrior for the then British Wizarding King – King Arthur. But after a few years he had not wanted to fight any more and had travelled to different lands and gained the magical knowledge from diminishing family lines. He had wanted to return and teach this knowledge to someone, but King Arthur had passed away and his successor was not very interested in learning from Myriddin. Hence Myriddin had travelled to Scotland."

King Althalos gave him the responsibility of teaching his young son, Salazar. Myriddin was very impressed with Salazar's level of knowledge and liked his ability to learn new things. Hence he agreed to teach him everything he knew. For a few years, Myriddin taught Salazar all his skills and also did some of his own research to create new rituals that will help Wizarding kind. Once he knew that Salazar was capable enough at the age of 7, he welcomed Salazar to help him with his research."

Lord Gryffindor had paused for a moment to see if the Headmaster had any questions for him, however he could see that Albus was very intrigued and had no questions so far. So he continued with his tale.

"Sometime during their research, Myriddin shared his wish to open a school that will enable Wizarding children to live together and mingle with each other. He said that this would create a bond so strong that it will last a lifetime and that will bond our society together. He also felt that it would be safer for everyone if they knew someone to rely on if the situation worsened.

"Salazar liked the idea but felt that not everyone will be able to learn complex rituals and other things. As they require a wizard to have a certain magical level. So they decided to find ways which can help even a person who has very small magical core. After much deliberation Salazar suggested something that would revolutionise the way magic was described.

"Salazar analysed different rituals and broke them down by steps, by doing this he realised that any particular ritual, had at least three different aspects to it. First was a potion was required to brewed, second something needed to be charmed, and third thing they sometimes used to transfigure some instruments in another to speed up the process. So he proposed that they can teach these aspects separately, and whilst not everyone is good at all of it, they can have their strengths and weaknesses."

Lady Ravenclaw continued from where Gryffindor had left off.

"This suggestion led to the creation of intent based spells. The king was very happy with this advancement in magic but was against the idea of teaching it to others." She said, visibly upset that someone could even think of restricting such knowledge.

Gryffindor grasped his wife's hand comfortingly. "During this time," he said. "I was sent to Salazar's palace by my father to learn battle tactics. My father was a lord and a distant cousin to Salazar's father. However both of them were close friends and thus King Althalos agreed to take me in and get tutored by his best warriors. However, this was also a good opportunity for Myriddin and Salazar and they introduced me to the intent based spells and different branches of magic. My father had tried to teach me rituals but I never had patience with potions and thus was never good at that. But I loved learning the other branches and especially weapon crafting and creating blades embedded with magic."

Lord Gryffindor had a faraway look in his eyes, as if reliving a past time, and to be honest he might well be. Then after pausing for a few moments he continued, his tone a million miles away, reliving those early days of his life.

"After two years or so, one day I received the news that my father and his army was defeated and killed and our lands taken. However, my mother, sister and Rowena here had escaped and were now taking refuge with the Royal Family. Salazar as Crown Prince welcomed them. My mother died within a few days and Salazar befriended my sister and Rowena. He saw that Rowena was interested in books and learning new things excited her. He also saw that whilst Helga loved to take care of the house and cook, she wanted to expand her knowledge. We once saw the two of them looking at us learning new spells with longing in their eyes."

Slytherin put a hand on Gryffindor's shoulder, snapping the other man out of his thoughts.

"I never gave another thought to it as I had grown up seeing my sister being treated differently than me and never questioned that, accepting this to be the way society worked." Gryffindor continued as speaking. "However, Salazar here had only grown up with maids looking after him and thus did not meet a Lady of status before. So after meeting Rowena and Helga, felt that women should also be given a chance to learn should they wish to do so. He had seen the longing in their eyes and had silently decided to do something about it."

At this Lord Gryffindor had looked down and given a dry chuckle almost as if blaming himself for not thinking about it in the first hand. The other founders also seemed to think so and thus all three of them had kept their hands on his arms. Godric had seemed to come out of his thoughts at this and gave a brief smile at his friends before continuing the story.

"So Salazar talked to, Myriddin and his father about teaching the girls. But he was rebuffed. However, Salazar being as stubborn and cunning as he is, had decided to teach them regardless, and thus he started to teach them secretly. He taught them to read, and write and would take them to the library with him. He organised everything so well that no one would come to know about it."

Godric had again chuckled here as if remembering all the times that his friends and sister would sneak around.

"Sal had also built many secret passageways just to get us around without anyone finding us out. He built the entire secret area in the castle that we had visited yesterday, with a sole purpose to let us practice the spells and other things that he taught us." Lady Hufflepuff proudly explained

At this all three of Salazar's friends shared a brief laugh before Godric continued

"When Salazar was thirteen years old, his father and Myriddin both went on a battle to defend their kingdom, but never came back. While the battle was still won, the king had died from injuries he had sustained. Hence Salazar became the king. This was the time when he could implement what he wanted to do, and shape the Wizarding World as he envisioned it. No one was there to stop him, and so he made some real hard decisions."

Godric paused, lost in his thoughts so Lady Ravenclaw continued

"He created a Ministry of Magic and made the chief counsellor of his father, Loran Diggory, the first Minister of Magic. Together they created many departments and their heads. It took them a little under a year as Salazar and Loran had already discussed this before this. They also roughly knew who would be heading what department and what each department would do."

"Many people were not happy with the new changes, and they were even less impressed with some of the new legislations – for example, the bill making it mandatory for the parents to educate all children including girls, another was the statue of secrecy, then another big one was the protection of muggle born kids. These are only few to begin with."

There was yet another pause at this point and Lord Gryffindor seemed to have come out of his thoughts and continued from where Lady Ravenclaw had left off. His voice held a hidden tone of pride and anger in them

"However, Salazar was able to go through all the criticism alone. He did not want me to get involved as he wanted me to train younger generation. So while Salazar was busy with this, the three of us were busy with preparing the school structure, different subjects, their syllabus etc..."

"By the time Salazar was fifteen, he was trying to find a suitable place to start the school. Unable to find any other secure place, he made his own castle in to the school, as it was the safest place in the kingdom, only setting aside a suite of rooms for his official duties.

"He also couldn't build a new castle as that would take a long time and it might not be secure enough. The architects who had built this castle were long dead and thus any modifications we made would be only known to us. But if we built something brand new it would mean that more people will know the general layout and that was not advisable. There were several other reasons why we decided against building a new castle.

"His detractors were trying their best to undermine him. However Salazar's ideas proved to be far too popular with the masses for these men to effectively do anything. Thus we felt it safe to ignore them altogether. But unknown to us, a fraction of people had started scheming against Salazar. During the course of the next few years there were multiple assassination attempts on Salazar." By the end of this, Godric's voice was shaking in fury and Dumbledore could see that even the two ladies seem to hold back their anger. After a moment Lady Hufflepuff started speaking.

"After these attacks, when they realised that they could not directly harm Salazar, these conspirators became silent. They planned in secret and started spreading rumours. Most people didn't believe them and worshipped Salazar. Then few of Salazar's students became dark lords and people started to become wary of what he was teaching. But they still trusted him to save them from Muggles."

Lady Hufflepuff's voice too held anger and possessiveness and by then end of it her voice was proud and happy. She paused almost involuntary as if remembering how proud she was of Salazar.

"During this time, Godric was entrusted with the task to go and fight in wars as that was his field of expertise. Salazar told us that he saw something in his potion with the power of seer and needed to do some research. In the coming few years he started to dedicate his time inside his lab more and took less students; leaving Godric to almost take up all the responsibilities of the King."

Lady Hufflepuff trailed off as if not sure how to continue. Then Salazar started speaking, surprising everyone.

"I had seen a great big Muggle army attacking Hogwarts when I was not present." He said in a detached voice. "It seemed to be coming soon and thus I had decided to protect the castle as much as possible and develop methods that would help the other founders in the absence of the lord of land. I was also developing different curses and potions to use in battle and cures of diseases that might spread if this war was to ever start.

"I knew these three would never hear anything about this from me, but I had seen the parents of current muggle born students in that army. These three wanted those parents to visit Hogwarts when they want, but I was always opposing this. They never let me explain it when I tried to say that they might attack us. This led everyone in the Wizarding world think that I was against the Muggleborn as the arguments between me and Godric had gained attention of many other professors but as Godric had never let me explain my point, neither Godric nor anyone else ever knew about the truth."

The other three founders bowed their heads, ashamed of their actions. Salazar held Rowena's hand and placed his other hand on Godric's shoulders while shaking his head at Helga, silently telling them that he did not blame them.

Collecting herself, Rowena spoke. "All everyone in the Wizarding world knew was that Salazar was working on developing something that was not known to anyone before. But no one was sure exactly what it was. All they saw was Godric handling all of the Salazar's work whilst Salazar being absent. So gradually people started believing that Salazar had only changed as Godric made him change. They looked at Godric to be their saviour; and Salazar as a dark wizard who was against the Muggleborns. The constant arguments between the two did not help matters."

Lady Ravenclaw trailed off as if the matter was too hard for her to continue, so Lady Hufflepuff continued

"Salazar never explained the reason but he was getting wary and wanted the Muggleborn children to be taken away as soon as it was found that they were magical and be brought up with magical parents or at Hogwarts. But as Godric, Rowena and I were orphaned and had to grow up somewhere different, we did not want any child to go through that. So we had rejected the idea and we didn't listen to Salazar. After their arguments, it was a norm for Salazar to go away into his chambers and lock himself there for days. Then one day, there was an argument again and Salazar had stormed out as usual. We expected him to come out after a few days, but a few days later we got news that Salazar had burned down a muggle village that was residence to the parents of a muggle born child at Hogwarts and then disappeared."

Lady Hufflepuff trailed off in tears. So Lord Gryffindor started again

"This incident had confirmed people's doubts and they labelled Salazar a dark wizard and hailed me as their hero by driving Salazar away from the school. Luckily I was able to continue teaching girls at school and kept the Ministry running. Then after a few years when there was no news form Salazar's side, the ministry with the endorsement of some influential people decided to ban all forms of ritualistic magic and only follow Hogwarts curriculum. A board of governors was formed for the school and Salazar was declared an enemy of the state and a dangerous man out to kill all Muggleborns. We watched all that and could do nothing to save Salazar's reputation as we didn't know why he did that. In that meeting I was appointed to be in Salazar's position and was crowned a King. However I never was a blood heir and Salazar only had a daughter, thus technically the monarchy had ended with Salazar but his name would not go down in history as the last King but I can imagine that no one wanted to acknowledge that Salazar was a king and had thus destroyed all traces of records that indicated that and instead painted him to be someone who sought power that rightly belonged to me."

Lord Gryffindor gave a sigh as he finished his tale but Lady Ravenclaw continued on the hidden story of Salazar.

"It wasn't until recently that we found out that after their fight Salazar had gone away from the castle to a forest to cool down, but as he was passing by a village he saw the family of a Muggleborn student being burned alive. He did not have his wand as he didn't want to do something bad in his temper and thus had to divert the fire to save that family. By the time he realised that his action had killed everyone in the village except that family, it was too late. But unfortunately that family was one of the traitors that he had seen in the vision and had attacked an unarmed Salazar and wounded him fatally. Salazar had to kill them before they gave the news of his death to the other parents and thus used his power to manipulate fire to burn that family alive; before taking his last breath."

All three of them had tears in their eyes and were looking down. There was complete silence where all of the occupants of the room were trying to gather their thoughts. But before any of them could say anything they heard a voice

"And how is it that a seventeen year old and very much alive Salazar Slytherin and his friends, know how he died and about the infamous split between the founders?"

The four founders and Headmaster had immediately turned around to see four people appearing in the office, as the invisibility charms they had placed on themselves was deactivated.

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**AN:** Now I have some good news and bad news for everyone. As I already told you that I have not and will not give up on the story. It still remains true. However, I got a new job and will be more busy than before. So this means that the updates will come slower but I promise I will try to update as quickly as possible without harming the quality of the work.


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